RWBY: Continuing Science
by Roboman
Summary: After finally escaping Aperture for the last time, Chell wonders what to do for her life. Well, she has a new and improved portal gun, and Huntress sounds like a decent job. (Hiatus)
1. Ch1 Want You Gone

" _The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one. And I'll be honest: killing you? Is hard. So you know what? You win. Just go."_

Chell remained blank faced until GLaDOS was out of sight, then let out possibly the biggest smile she ever had. Finally she would be free of Aperture, ready to do what she would like with her life. However, those thoughts came to a close when the doors opened to reveal for turrets staring at her.

Chell glanced around the tiny elevator. There was nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.

 _So this is how it ends, huh?_ _Yeah, right._ She thought to herself, and began to brainstorm. _The doors will have to open for them to get a shot at me. I should be able to rush past them before taking too much damage. Of course, they could just shoot through the glass, but they've seemed to stop trying to do that ever since GLaDOS came back online..._ Chell shook off her rambling thoughts and tensed her legs up in preparation.

And then something unexpected happened. The turrets shut off their laser-targeting then started to...sing? The elevator started to slowly move up again, showing hundreds, maybe thousands of turrets singing goodbye… she assumed. They were singing in a language Chell couldn't understand.

The elevator started to ascend once more, faster this time, until it stopped at a heavy-looking door, which slowly opened with a creek, unveiling a massive field of wheat. Chell slowly stepped out in disbelief.

 _I'm out! I'm finally out of that Oum-forsaken place! Now…_

 _ **CLANG!**_

Chell's mental celebration was cut short by a very loud sound. She whirled around in surprise to see the door had slammed shut. But just as she was about to turn around and never come back, she heard a series of smaller clangs growing louder. The door opened one last time to deploy a familiar box with pink hearts on the side before closing again, hopefully forever this time.

 _My Companion Cube? Why would she give me this? It's not like I need it…_

Chell's thoughts were once again interrupted by a small click and the top side of the cube popping open slightly. Chell cautiously opened the lid the rest of the way, and inside, she saw a red light that she knew all too well.

" _There you are."_

Chell instinctively dived out of the way of the bullets. Yet, the bullets never came.

" _Ha Ha Ha. Gotcha."_

Chell slowly looked back in on the turret, but there was no turret, just an optic attached to a voice box.

" _No hard feelings."_

 _Of course she would do something like this._ Chell rolled her eyes and took the "turret" out before chucking it over her shoulder.

 _"Glorious freedom!"_

However, that wasn't all that was stored in the box. There was also a small, mostly white rectangular object with the Aperture logo surrounding a blue diamond shaped button. She pressed it and the two halves split apart and a screen formed between them. Chell knew that this was a new kind of scroll, one that had been popping up more and more among the scientists for a few years before GLaDOS was brought online. She slipped it into one of her jumpsuit's pockets and moved onto the next item, which turned out to be a belt with a magnetic holster for the last object:

 _I can't believe this, she would be willing to give me one of these?_ In Chell's hands there was the unmistakable design of an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. But, it was different than the ones she used before. It was slightly bigger for one thing, the barrel seemed retracted, and it looked to have more moving parts. Also, the handle that the triggers were on appeared to be able to rotate.

Chell turned the handle counterclockwise so it was straight up, like she was used to it being. The barrel extended and lit up, a thin blue stream of energy running down the middle. Now it looked almost identical to the portal guns she used in the testing tracks. As she was about to experiment more though, the Aperture logo appeared in thin air, along with the words "Installing update."

Chell had grown so used to the reticle that helped her aim that she had almost forgotten about the Aperture Science Smart Contact Lenses that made it possible. After a few moments, the logo disappeared, being replaced with the words "Connecting to Aperture Science Variable Size Personal Communication Device."

 _Only Aperture would call a scroll something that complex._ Chell rolled her eyes. _Though I c_ _an't say it's not an accurate description, s_ he continued as a gauge, conveniently labeled "Aura", filled up in the corner of her vision.

When that was done, the words were replaced with "Connecting to Aperture Science Handheld Multi-Functional Device." Now that got her attention. _What does it mean by "Multi-Functional?"_

More text popped up before she could think about the meaning for long.

"All-Surface Portal Projector: Online; Active

High-Compression Gel Distributor: Online; Stand-by

Miniature Thermal Discouragement Beam; Online: Stand-by

High-Temperature Deployable Blade: Online; Stand-by

Thank you, and have a pleasant day! (Unless you're Black Mesa.)"

 _Ah, so that's what it means. Well, I suppose I'll give it a test as I head to town. I think Vale is this way._ Chell started walking north, according to her new scroll. _Let's see… I guess I should start with first on the list._

She fired her blue portal at the ground. In direct contradiction to what was already known, it stayed there, despite not being a portalable surface. _So All-Surface really does mean All-Surface. That will be useful. Alright, next up, gel._

She twisted the handle to set the gun to Gel-Mode. A gel icon appeared next to the reticle in her vision, and two panels on the back of the gun slid to the side, showing a vial of Repulsion Gel and one of Propulsion.

Chell created a runway of Propulsion Gel, and noticed that as she didn't have an unlimited supply of the stuff. A percentage for both types had appeared when she first switched modes and the orange one was now slightly lower, but still higher than what you would expect from small size of the vials.

Chell then set the gun to laser mode, causing the panels on the side of the Multi-Gun to fold up like a pair of wings, uncovering a series of vents. The claws on the front of the gun closed slightly and started to rotate slowly. Also, the barrel started to glow red. Chell held the trigger, the claws spun faster and, after a half-second of charging, a small but powerful beam erupted from the gun, singing the ground and creating a small fire, which Chell quickly stomped out. She also noticed a heat meter on her HUD that filled up whilst firing, so she couldn't fire forever like the normal sized lasers at Aperture.

 _Alright, last mode, let's try out the High-Temp Blade._ Chell twisted the handle all the way to left, so it was ninety degrees from its portal-mode position. This triggered a much more dramatic transformation in the weapon compared to the relatively small changes of the previous modes. The barrel retreated into the back of the gun, like in it's carry mode, but it didn't stop there. The back end practically crawled up her arm and formed a kind of bracer, with a blade extending from the top, right above the hand. But the blade wasn't a normal blade, Chell noticed. It was actually red hot! Fortunately there was a guard between her hand the blade, but she would still have to be careful around it.

 _I'm going to need a name for this thing,_ Chell thought as she put the gun away. put the gun in storage mode, put it on her back, then looked around. It was getting late. Her semblance was endurance, meaning she needed very little food or rest. In fact, that was what made Aperture interested in her as a potential test subject. Still, she hadn't had a good night's rest in a long time, and even she needed sleep occasionally. Luckily she spotted a spotted a nice big tree that should be to high for a Grimm to get into easily, but low enough to just be a quick bounce away. One squirt of repulsion gel later Chell was climbing the lower branches of the tree, but not before covering the gel she used with some propulsion gel to stop some clever Beowolf. After just a few moments, she drifted off to a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

 **(A/N):** Well. Here it is. My masterpiece of fanfiction. Although, can it be called a masterpiece if you haven't done anything before it? I managed to make this chapter in a day. When I first got this idea, I thought this chapter would be longer than 1300 words (excluding this note), but this is pretty much all I wanted this chapter to include. You probably noticed that the first few paragraphs were taken straight from the end of Portal 2. That's because I felt that was a better starting point then afterwords. Also, it tells the reader that Aperture was always on remnant in this AU. I have an idea for the next one or two chapters but after that I have no clue where to take this. So if anyone has any ideas or would like to collab with me, please review or PM me. If I ever decide to write more Portal related stories, I will probably reuse the Companion-Cube-having-a-portal-gun idea as that's the best way I can think of to give Chell another portal gun. You can't have a good Portal story without portals (well… maybe you can). Also, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability. Other than that, please tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I could do better, because this is my first time publishing anything on the internet. Oh, also, Chell mentioned naming her gun. I already have a name picked out, but, if you have a really good suggestion, please leave it in a review along with why you picked it, and I'll take it into consideration. I don't think I have anything else to say, and I don't know how I should end this so… HEY, LOOK, A BIRD!

 _*plops portal under feet while you hopefully look the other way due to that excellent distraction*_

 **Edited on 3/10/18  
** **Changes:** Slight alteration to Gel-Mode's functionality, various details added.

 **9/14/18** -Changed description of scroll to explain Chell's familiarity with it.


	2. Ch2 On the road to Vale

Before we start, I would like to address some reviews;

DontWantNoCredit: Thank you so much for the advice. For your questions, I plan to address most in due time. And don't worry; I have no intention of including romance of any kind. Except maybe Ruby/Portal Gun. That makes a lot of sense.

Evinco: Hm… makes sense. I might have a little of that.

Gladeo25: Maybe. I have an idea of why she would use one, but I'm not sure if i'll put it in.

* * *

Chell woke up from the best sleep in years. Suspended animation was fine, but it didn't hold a candle to the real deal of a good night's rest. Still, there was the slight problem of a Beowolf trying to climb the tree. Luckily, the growls had woken before she became an unsuspecting breakfast.

 _I suppose I'll give my gun a test run,_ she thought as she took it off her back a set it to laser mode.

Aligning the crosshair with the now uncomfortably close Grimm, she held down the trigger as the claws spun faster before unleashing the beam of heat on the unsuspecting beast, who was to close react even if lasers didn't travel at the speed of light.

The Beowolf howled in pain, releasing its grip on the tree as the smell of singed fur wafted up. Chell fully intended to end the monsters life, but the gun chose then to overheat, releasing a large cloud of steam out the vents on the sides. By the time it cooled down, the Grimm had limped away to cover behind a group of trees.

 _Alright so I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on my heat gauge. Still, nice to know how effective that beam is._ Chell opened her scroll's map. _Alright, it looks like I'm still a day or two away from Vale. By foot that is._ Chell put the device back in her pockets and swapped the gun to portal mode. Her contacts zoomed in, allowing her to target a far away section of ground.

An orange energy blast was fired and... nothing. No portal appeared, but neither did the shower of sparks which normally indicated an unsuccessful attempt at placing one. She tried again, and was met with the same result. Yet another shot was used, and this time Chell focused not on the target, but the energy itself.

It was hard to tell because of the speed of the projectile, but it seemed to disappear after a traveling a certain distance. One more test confirmed this; the target was out of range. But how was that possible? It was far away, sure, but within spitting range compared to the moon, and her old gun could do that no problem.

Her old gun... Oh, of course! Chell facepalmed; it was so obvious! _This_ gun was much more powerful, not needing specific surfaces for portal placement, but _of course_ that would come with a cost. It was foolish of her to think otherwise. Oh well; she only needed that much range once before, and see wasn't about to do something that stupid again anytime soon.

She moved her aim closer and fired again, but still nothing. So she moved it closer and closer and kept shooting until a familiar oval finally appeared. A corresponding blue portal was shot at the base of the tree she was on, and Chell jumped into the wormhole feet-first.

Meanwhile, a certain black beast wasn't entirely happy with the recent treatment it received and was hungry for revenge. So when it saw the female responsable prepare to leap down from her perch, it saw its chance and took it. The Beowolf charged Chell and leapt with a trajectory that would tackle Chell to the ground as soon as she landed. What it did not expect was for her to _through_ the floor. This caused the Grimm's claws to pass through thin air. When it hit the ground, it spent a few moments in confusion at the disappearing prey before turning around and seeing the same girl flying some distance away, before shooting at something that couldn't be seen and falling once more.

* * *

Chell flung herself out of the portal and onto the top of one of the many mountains surrounding Vale. It had taken several hours to get this far, even with the advantages her gun provided. Aperture really was out in the middle of nowhere it seemed.

Focusing on her surroundings, Chell spotted a camp set up near the foot of the mountain. It was a little too far to make out clearly, yet she could see some people walking around. Searching for a clue as to who these people were, she soon found it in the form of a symbol painted on one of the tents.

It looked similar to that Faunus rights group, the White Fang, Chell believed they were called, but it looked far more sinister. Claw marks ran across it and the color was red-on-white instead of white-on-blue. Something told Chell she should probably steer clear of this group, although this could be a good opportunity to gather some useful intel about current events. Being 20 years behind on the times was _not_ going to help at all.

After a few moments of internal debate, she decided a quick look around wouldn't hurt, especially if no one knew she was there. She portaled to the roof of one of the trucks and leapt down onto the ground, boots muffling the sound of her feet hitting the ground. Creeping around the side, she overheard a pair of guards (who were wearing… Grimm masks?) talking.

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"You ever wonder why we're-"

"Shut up!"

"What?"

"Do you know how many times I've heard that damn question? No, I don't know why we're here, and quite frankly, I don't care. Now quit talking to me!"

"...Actually, I was wondering why we were working with that human scum Torchwick."

"Oh… sorry… I think it has something to do with resources or something…"

"It's okay, I'm tired of that question too."

By this time, Chell had heard enough and decided to investigate elsewhere. Entering the tent that they were guarding via an almost soundless portal, she was greeted by many storage boxes with various symbols on them, including many warning signs. After canceling the portals, she approached the closest one, which had a snowflake emblem on it.

 _That's the Schnee Dust Company logo, right?_ Chell thought as she shifted her gun to melee-mode, the Burn Dust embedded in the blade slicing through the lock like a hot knife through… well, steel. Her suspicions were confirmed when upon opening the crate she was greeted by crystals of all varieties and sizes.

 _Why do they need so much Dust?_ She opened another crate, this one with the symbol of the Atlas military. Inside was a multitude of mass-produced weaponry, including pistols, assault rifles, and SMGs. _Are they gearing up for war?_ Chell then moved on to the last series of boxes.

There were only two of these boxes, one being much bigger than the other. They were orange, and had more warning stickers when compared to the other crates. One of these warnings consisted of three triangles with rounded ends pointing inwards towards a small circle. There was also an emblem that Chell remembered seeing… somewhere. It was a circle surrounding what looked like the fin of an aircraft or missile. Picking up the smaller of the two, Chell saw the markings " XVL-1456." Chell raised her blade to check what was inside and...

"HEY, HANDS UP!"

Whirling around, Chell was met with the two guards from the front of the tent, who hand finally decided to check out the noises she was making.

 _Damnit! I forgot about them. I need to be more careful in the future._

Chell responded to their demands by unholstering her gun and shooting a single shot at the pair. The guard on the right smirked as the blue energy blast whiffed past his head.

"Nice aim, kid," he said, before opening fire along with his friend.

 _I wasn't aiming for you, idiot,_ Chell thought as she ducked behind one of the crates, but not before grabbing a crystal out of it. Holding the dust up to her eye, she grinned. Ducking out of cover slightly and letting her aura take the hits, she tossed the crystal in-between the two of them.

"Grenade!" cried one as he dived to the ground

Chell switched to laser mode.

The other guard took a glance at what was thrown. "That's not a grenade you moron, that's a…"

He never had the chance to finish his thought as Chell took aim and fired. The energy hit the crystal of Steam Dust head-on, causing a large explosion of steam obscure the vision of the guards. Chell took this opportunity she had created for herself to place an orange portal below her feet, and emerged from the portal she put behind the guards. From there, she went back up the mountain and began to plan a route to town.

* * *

"Any sign of her?" the White Fang sergeant in charge of the storage outpost asked the men under his command. Receiving negatives, he sighed, putting his hand on his face.

"Alright then." At this he turned to the guards that were on duty. "Mind telling me exactly what happened?"

The one on the left snapped to attention. "Sir! Private Anaran and I were on duty in front of the storage tent when we heard some noises coming from inside. I wanted to investigate, but Anaran insisted it was just rats, or something like that."

"It could have been rats for all you knew," the one now known as Anaran piped up.

"And what kind of rats make that much noise?"

Anaran thought about this for a few moments before responding "Mutant rats?"

"Uh, yeah, I could buy that," another soldier said.

"Shut up Cobalt!" practically the entire group shouted.

"Anyway, I finally managed to convince him to check it out with me," The first guard continued. "Upon entering the tent, we cornered the individual, but she managed to escape by creating a smokescreen by detonating a crystal of steam dust."

"Wait, wouldn't that be a steamscreen?"

"Shut up Cobalt!"

"After that, we came and reported it to you sir."

"Hmmm… Adam's not going to like this. Alright everyone, let's pack it up!" The Sergeant ordered.

"What! Why?" Anaran exclaimed.

"Because, Private, the enemy now knows our exact position! Normally I would love to face the human scum in a glorious and bloody last stand, but this outpost contains too many valuable supplies for our fellow soldiers to risk it. Now, get a-packing!"

"Ugh… but it's just so much work! Tell you what, everyone else can pack, while I…"

Anaran never got to finish his thought as he was interrupted by the sound of a shotgun being pumped.

"... go help them out."

As he was about to leave, the other guard came up to him and said "Hey, at least she didn't do anything with that experimental stuff. I hear they went through hell to get it."

"Yeah… Come on, let's go do our _work."_ At this, he visibly shuddered

Under his mask, the other guard rolled his eyes, and thought he saw someone hiding in the shadows. By the time he turned to get a better look, however, there wasn't anyone there. He shrugged it off as his imagination and went to pack, eager to please his superior.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Atlas, a man was waiting for a report. He didn't have to wait much longer, as his computer beeped with an incoming call. He locked the door to his office and pressed the accept button.

"Well? Have you found them?"

"If you are referring to your… _assets_ , then yes I have located them," the voice on the other end hissed. It sounded… off somewhat, putting a weird emphasis on seemingly random words.

"Excellent! Bring them back as soon as possible," the man said with a grin.

"Unfortunately, they are _not_ in my possession. There was an… _unforeseen_ complication."

The smile dropped from the man's face immediately. "What do you mean by 'complication'?"

"There was a young woman there. Her appearance seemed entirely coincidental, as she knew _nothing_ about the prototypes and the White Fang _certainly_ didn't expect to find her there." A picture of the woman in question appeared on the display. The man's breath hitched immediately.

She was wearing orange pants with a white tank top and had an unfamiliar gun in her hand. That wasn't surprising; there were many of one-of-a-kind guns in the world. But what drew his attention was the logo on the tank top and what looked like a hole in the mountain behind her.

"Forget about the prototypes, I have a new assignment for you. I need you to convince that girl to come in. If you can't, just leave. I'll send in some B-models to take her by force."

"As you wish."

The man terminated the call. Somewhat recently, a train carrying a shipment of experimental technology being stolen by a group of terrorists. But now things were looking up. Oh yes, they were looking very well indeed.

* * *

 **(A/N):** So, I was thinking of adding Wheatley in at some point, but I don't think I will for two reasons. First, I think it's kind of overdone (with good reason, he's obviously the funniest character); and second, I probably wouldn't be able to do him justice. In other news, I'm not entirely happy with the title "Remnants of Aperture". It seems kind of a clichéd RWBY name. If anyone has any suggestions for a better one, go ahead and leave them in a review or just PM me.

 **Revision complete on 3/13/18  
** **Notable changes:** Removed Chell picking up extra equipment in tent, added a maximum range for the portal gun.


	3. Ch3 The Meeting

**(A/N)** I only have one review to address, so here it is.

 **Cheese Wagon:** Thank you for your suggestion for the title. If there are enough after a few weeks, I'll put up a poll on my profile with the titles and who suggested them. I will try to update once a week, but sometimes life may happen. Also, Chell isn't mute; she just chooses not to speak.

* * *

"Hello, and welcome to Vale News Network. I'm Lisa Lavender. A recent break-in at a clothing store has police scratching their heads in confusion. To explain why they have a high interest in such a small crime, here's Tyler McHogany."

 _(Camera cuts to a man standing outside the store in question.)_

"Thank you Lisa. I am currently standing outside J. C. Peppers, where a minor theft occurred late last night. At around 12 o'clock, an unidentified suspect was observed by security cameras wandering around the store."

 _(Image of man replaced by surveillance footage. The footage shows a young woman wandering among the aisles, removing various articles of clothing from the shelves.)_

"The suspect appears to be a woman in her early 20s. As you can see, she had no interest in anything other than clothes, and didn't even attempt to open the cash register. What the police is most interested in, although, is the method used to enter the store in the first place."

 _(Camera cuts back to reporter)_

"There was no evidence of forced entry, such as broken windows, and all entrances and exits are covered with cameras. However, the first she appeared on them was what you just saw. Obviously, this has the police worried.

 _(Camera cuts once more to a detective with a beard and sunglasses.)_

"We at the VPD normally wouldn't have a very high priority on this case, due to the relatively low value of the stolen items. But, the woman was able to enter and leave without a trace. The most likely theory is that this is a semblance of some form. Whatever it is, it's extremely concerning to us.

"Stealing clothing is fairly harmless compared to all the other cases we have going on right now, but if this technique is used to steal from a bank vault, for example, this girl could become as dangerous as Torchwick, if not more so."

 _(Camera cuts yet again to the reporter, with a freeze-frame of the thief in the top left-hand corner.)_

"If you have any information pertaining to this case, please contact the Vale Police Department as soon as possible.

"Back to you, Lisa."

* * *

Chell woke up from her makeshift bed made from a pile of folded cardboard boxes. Her current clothing consisting of orange pants and a white shirt with an over jacket the same color as her leggings. Her weapon was stored in a backpack off to her side, which was also white.

Checking her scroll, she found it was still very early in the morning. Not surprising, as she had turned in early last evening after an unsuccessful day of job hunting. Most of them went something like this:

" _So, do you have any previous training?"_

 _Chell shook her head no._

" _You don't speak much, do you?"_

 _Another shake_

" _Okay, get out."_

Today she was planning to look into some more undesirable jobs. Being a gas station attendant was _not_ something she wanted to do, but if that was all she could get, well… at least she would be able to pay for things she needed. She did not like being a thief, even if the portal gun did make her an excellent one. She just stole what she needed to survive, mostly from food stalls.

Chell was brought out of her thoughts by what sounded like footsteps coming from nearby.

 _I wait a minute; I know I locked all the doors._ Chell grabbed her gun from the backpack and stood up, moving to the nearby breaker box. Opening it, she fumbled around for a few seconds before finding the switch she was looking for. She pulled it, and was blinded temporarily as the lights came on in the abandoned warehouse. She looked out at the aisles of empty shelves, then went to go look for what made the noise.

 **[Insert song; _HL2 OST_ ; **_**Lab Practicum**_ **]**

Chell approached the corner with her weapon at the ready. She rounded it to find… nothing. The space in front of her was completely bare, aside from a few empty shelving units. _I could have sworn it was coming around here_ , Chell thought as she moved forward.

"Looking for ssomeone?"

Chell most certainly did _not_ let out a shriek of surprise (and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise) and whirled around to come face to face with the person who snuck up on her.

"My, my, you have _quite_ the voice for someone who hardly ever speakss," the man rasped.

Chell's face reddened, from equal parts anger and embarrassment, as she gave the unknown man the glare normally only reserved for GLaDOS. _At least_ I _don't sound like a snake._

The man was tall and skinny, with an unnaturally pale complexion. He was dressed in a blue business suit and carried a briefcase with the same symbol that was on the cases back at the White Fang camp. _Where have I seen that before?_

The most unnerving thing about him, however, was his eyes. They were a bluish-green, and seemed to glow slightly.

"I _ssuppose_ asking you to put… that," he gestured to the gun which was currently pointed at him, "away would be pointless?" Chell lowered her weapon, but kept it in her hand in case he tried something.

"Thank you. Now, onto business. I… represent a group that is… _interested_ in the recent events that you have been _innvolved_ with.

Chell seemed unfazed, keeping her icy glare fixed on the stranger. Internally though, she was panicking. _He knows! I don't know how but, somehow, he knows about Aperture!_

"I am ssure you are wondering _how_ I know these tthings. I asssure you, _all_ would become clear if you were to _accompany_ me back to Black Mesa."

Chell visibly reeled back this time. _Black Mesa! That's where I've seen that symbol before; it was on one of those slideshows back when I first escaped the testing track! Well, if he thinks I'm going to trade one enrichment center for another, he's got another thing coming!_ Chell glared back once more, this time in defiance.

The man noticed this look and responded. "Well, I was _hoping_ we could do this the easy way, but it appears you have made up your mind. Very well then... But we will ssee each other again, you can count on _that_."

At this he turned around and walked towards the door behind him, opening and walking through it. The lights slightly flickered as soon as he closed it behind him.

 **[End song]**

 _You're not getting away that easily!_ Chell mentally screamed, rushing to follow him. She reached the door, flinging it open with enough force that the broom inside the storage closet fell down. Wait a minute. Where'd he go?

Chell mused over this conundrum as her eyes explored every nook and cranny of the closet. There was nowhere to hide in it. Several theories popped into Chell's mind, and she decided to pick the simplest one. _Frickin semblance,_ she thought with a sigh.

Suddenly, the sound of engines came from overhead, followed by glass shattering. Whipping around and looking up, she saw a platoon of eight androids of a model she didn't recognize repelling from the now broken windows.

The robots were boxy looking with a single red eye slightly off center on their "faces," and were painted with dark green camo. The weapons they carried had some variety. Three carried SMGs, three more assault rifles, and the other two were equipped with shotguns. All of them carried the same model of sidearm, however. Another thing she noticed was that the assault rifles had a long tube underneath the barrel, and a second trigger in front of the magazine. The SMGs had a similar setup, but the tubes were a quite a bit shorter.

They moved as one to surround Chell as soon as their feet hit the floor, with the sound of safeties disengaging filling the air. Some of them then stepped aside, allowing a _very_ big man carrying a triple-barreled gatling gun move forward. He had dark skin, wore urban camo, and had a large backpack with an ammo belt running from it to his gun. Several grenades of different varieties were strapped to his waist. Zooming in on his dog tags, Chell saw the name "Sgt. Kelly Beigy" imprinted there.

"I've been ordered to take you in alive, if possible," he said in a gruff voice. "If you surrender now, I won't have to harm you. Much."

Chell responded by making an extremely rude gesture. The grunt grinned and spun up his gun.

 **[Insert song: _HL1/HL2 OST_ ; **_**Diabolical Adrenaline Guitar/**_ _ **Lambda Core**_ **]**

Chell ducked before she was turned to mincemeat, placing a blue portal on the roof of the other side of the warehouse, and an orange directly beneath her. She canceled them the moment she dropped through. The robots were very confused at the sudden disappearance of their target. Kelly realized what happened almost immediately, however.

He pointed at Chell's direction. "Fan out, and converge!" he ordered his squad, which complied immediately.

Chell popped out from the shelf she was taking cover behind to fire her laser at the closest robot until it shut down to vent.

" _Warning; extreme temperatures detected! Overclocking cooling systems to compensate!_ " exclaimed the robot that now had a fist-sized hole in its chest. If Chell were to be looking at the android's backside, she would see the vents located there opening up wide, along with all the other bots doing the same.

Chell attempted to fire off another burst, but this one did less damage. _Looks like they can adapt fairly well. I'll have to be more careful_. Then Chell heard the whining of an electric motor, followed by a stream of bullets.

Now, Chell had only been the subject of one type of bullet before, so she wasn't exactly the world's expert on getting shot (which was probably a good thing). Even then, she had expected to be taking a lot more damage considering how weak her aura was in comparison to others... and, you know, the fact she was being shot with a _freaking gatling gun!_ But regardless of the damage, or lack thereof, she didn't feel like just taking it. To that end, Chell quickly turned the corner of the shelving unit before the assault cannon could hit her too many times, and took a moment to catch her breath.

"Of course she has aura," she heard Kelly mutter before shouting "Switch to lethal rounds, but shoot to wound!" Well, that answered one question.

Every robot immediately stopped moving and yanked the magazine out of its weapon (aside from the shotgun wielders, who just worked the pump until all shells were extracted). A hatch opened on their outer left thighs and they slid the old mag into the opening. The mags were then pulled down and fresh ones popped back out and were inserted into the weapon of their respective robot, followed by the sound of six guns being cocked simultaneously(again, the shotgun users were the exception, pulling out and inserting shells one at a time). The robots then continued their patrols. As for Kelly, he simply unhooked the ammo belt from his gun and slid it back into his backpack before pulling out and hooking up a fresh belt from a slit directly above where he stored the other. All this took place within seconds.

Chell heard heavy clanking to her right and turned to see the robot she damaged earlier round the corner, weapon primed. She jumped to the side just as the android squeezed the trigger of its assault rifle, the three-round burst just barely missing her legs.

Chell was only a few steps away from the bot, so before it could fire off another burst, she responded by delivering a swift kick what would have been its stomach. The robot was knocked off balance and stumbled back slightly. Chell took advantage of this by yanking the pistol off its leg and flipping the small switch she saw on the side.

 _Please-be-the-safety-please-be-the-safety-please-be-the-safety._

As Chell chanted her internal mantra, she fired into the freshly-melted cavity. Unfortunately for her, she had never used a gun in her life (aside from that of the portal-variety) and therefore didn't take into consideration a little thing called recoil. It was this improper gun usage that caused the pistol to fly out of hand immediately upon the first shot. Chell's face contorted in pain as she tightly griped her aching wrist, several profanities flashing through her mind.

However, the single shot she _did_ get off managed to hit even with the strong recoil, a fact not surprising considering it was fired at point blank. That, combined with the partially melted electronics inside, was just enough to bring it down. The android spat and sputtered, falling backwards with sparks flying out, as the red light in its eye died down.

Chell moved to examine the assault rifle the robot carried. She would have considered taking it had recent events not told her that was a _bad_ idea. However, she did notice a hatch which had popped open on the right leg and the small, green pineapple-like object that rolled out of it. Chell kneeled down and picked it up, but then she heard a slight beeping coming from the robotic corpse.

Taking a guess at what was about to happen, Chell attempted to get away. However, she was too slow and got caught in the ensuing blast, propelling her straight into the wall.

Chell groaned and struggled to get to her feet. Fortunately, her gun was still secured to her forearm, and she could see where the grenade had landed. _Un_ fortunately, there was a trio of robots between her and it. Chell rolled to the side and behind another shelving unit to avoid the incoming fire whilst setting her gun back to portal-mode. She then placed a portal under the grenade and the other one beside her, and caught the device as it fell through.

Chell dropped her portal gun in order to hold the explosive in her dominant hand. Remembering the few FPS games she played in her teens, she pulled the pin and waited roughly two seconds (side note; do **not** try this at home) before rolling the grenade straight at the three androids. All three turned away from it, and one of them even said _"Warning, ex-"_ but was cut short when the fuse ran out far earlier than it was programmed to expect.

"Useless machines!" cried Kelly, who had turned a corner just in time to witness them get knocked to the ground from the explosion.

Chell grabbed her portal gun and used the gel-mode to get away. "You can't hide forever girly!"

 _Girly? Is that seriously the best you can come up with? At least the others were_ creative _with their insults_ _._

Chell ran across the aisle until she heard the clanking of metal footsteps. Meanwhile, Kelly was looking for any sign of where his prey had gone. His search ended as a portal opened on the roof once again. "Heh, not this time," he muttered, spinning up his gun, and opening fire as soon as he saw something fall through, landing just a few aisles over. Hefting his cannon, he went to inspect his kill. As he rounded the corner of the lane the body landed in, he was met by…

A collapsed robot that promptly self-destructed in his face.

 _Did you really think I would try the same trick twice? With thinking like that, you might be able to give Wheatley a run for his money,_ Chell chastised him mentally.

" _Grenade activated!"_ a robotized voice called out from behind her. Chell heard a clink and looked down to see a small cylinder coming to rest at her feet. Chell glanced at the offending bot before kicking the small bomb back like a ball and looking away.

" _Alert!"_ was all that was said before the flashbang exploded. The robot stumbled from the bright light and announced _"Error... recalibrating."_ It was disabled just long enough for Chell to run up and stab it in the neck, then jumping back before it blew up. _Six down, two to go. Then I can take out the big guy._

"Damnit! All units, group up on me!"

 _Speaking of…_

Kelly was pissed. This morning he was put in charge of two B-model squads with a very simple job; bring in a person of interest if the _creep_ couldn't convince her to come with him. What they didn't tell him was that this _bitch_ had teleportation tech, lasers, and had enough agility to rival a huntsman! To hell with his mission! This lady was _dead_!

"Disregard previous orders," he muttered to his last remaining units. "Shoot to kill." The robots beeped in acknowledgement.

Chell crouched around the corner by them and took a quick peek.

" _Target acquired!"_ shouted one robot prior to squeezing the secondary trigger of the SMG in its hand, and a small grey object with a rounded tip was launched out of the tube. Chell dodged before it hit, but was still hurt by splash damage when the grenade exploded on impact. She retaliated by covering the two robots in repulsion gel and putting a portal underneath one. They were completely oblivious to this action due their programming not accounting for an event even remotely similar, and kept firing until Chell ducked back out of sight.

 **[End song (if it hasn't already)]**

Chell opened the other portal on the wall. What happened next, was like magic.

The android fell from the portal and as soon as it hit the floor, the trace amounts of gravity dust in the gel activated, sending it back up just as high as it fell from and slightly increasing its forward momentum. If the robot was alive- or programed by Aperture- it would have been screaming as loud as it could.

Chell turned her gaze back towards Kelly. The look on his face was priceless, and words wouldn't even begin to do it justice. He was so dumbstruck that he almost didn't even think to duck as the flying bot came hurtling towards him. He did though, and the android instead hit the other robot covered in gel, sending it flying as well. Kelly's expression became even more outrageous.

Chell just couldn't help but snicker at the spectacle. Kelly somehow heard her over the bouncing bots, and his face was immediately replaced with blind rage as he took out a grenade, yanked the pin out, and threw it directly at her feet, but not before letting the fuse run down.

Chell didn't even have time to recognize the threat before the grenade exploded, dealing significant damage and throwing Chell away. She struggled to get up, letting out a groan as she got back up, but it all died out the moment she noticed her aura meter.

 _I'm in the red zone. I have to finish this quick._ Chell got up, now completely serious and not tired at all. She picked up her gun from where it landed nearby, and turned to face her opponent.

 **[Insert song; _Portal 2: Songs to Test By_ ; **_**Your Precious Moon**_ **]**

Chell fired bursts of lasers whilst running for cover, careful to avoid overheating. None of them hit. Kelly grinned maniacally, whilst laying down fire. He only hit a few times before Chell got to behind a shelf. "Stop dodging! Do you have any idea how much these bullets cost?"

Chell decided to oblige him and leapt out of cover, running straight at him. Kelly held down the trigger, only to be met by the clicking of his gun running empty. He stared in disbelief, before looking at the ammo belt that Chell severed with the blasts she "missed." He could have reconnected it, but considering the rate at which the girl was closing, he instead dropped the cannon and pulled out his pistol, only for Chell to smack it away with her own gun, following up with a punch to the side of his waist that did very little.

Kelly shoved Chell away with a kick and brought his gun to bear. "You don't know much hand-to-hand, do you?"

Chell responded with a grin and threw something at his feet. Kelly decided to humor her and looked down. As he gazed at the pin, his expression turned to one of pure horror. He reached for the grenades on his belt while Chell ran as fast as she could, but it was too late.

 _ ***KABOOOOM***_

The grenade exploded, setting off a chain reaction, detonating the other grenades on the belt, along with all the unused ammo in his backpack. Both Chell and Kelly were knocked backwards.

 **[End song]**

Chell slowly pulled herself off the ground. Her head was spinning, she was covered in cuts and bruises, and the meter in her vision indicated that her aura was completely gone. She pulled herself up and looked around the room.

Kelly was lying on the ground, blood pouring out of his many wounds. He was far worse off than Chell, due in no small part to being at ground zero. Chell walked over to him and knelt down. It only took seconds to confirm his lack of breathing. Chell just stood there, dumbstruck.

 **[Insert song:** _ **Black Mesa Main Theme**_ **]**

She just killed a man. Yes it was in self-defense and he wasn't a particular _good_ man, but still, she killed him. There was no voice in the sky to blame this time, it was all on her. And the worst part was…

She didn't even feel that bad about it. Shouldn't she feel awful and want to puke? It wasn't like killing a soulless Grimm. He might have had family… children who would never see their father again because of her. And she just ended his life without blinking an eye. And that weighed on her conscious more than killing him ever could.

In the distance, sirens whined, but Chell didn't hear them. She just kept staring ahead with a blank expression on her face. She didn't even react when the doors flew inwards to allow the SWAT team entrance. She had the same face when she was cuffed and read her rights. And when she was taken away.

As the team inspected the wreckage of the warehouse, one member said the thing that was on everyone's mind.

"What the hell happened here?"

* * *

 **(A/N):** I was planning on adding some more to the end, but this seemed to be a good ending point. I'll put what I was going to write at the beginning of the next chapter.

I would like to thank Lord Curly for the idea of adding Black Mesa as an antagonist.

The songs were an experiment. I've seen some other authors use it to establish a mood, and I thought I would try the same thing. I might have gone a little overboard though. Tell me what you think of it.

I'm sure everyone who knows anything about Half-Life knows who that unknown man was. Fair warning, his true nature going to be very different in this fic than in the games.

I originally intended Kelly to be a massive TF2 Soldier reference, but decided against it. Then I found out about the Sergeant and decided to make him that. For those of you curious of what Kelly and the robots look like, just google "half-life robot grunt" and "half-life sergeant."

 **Revision complete on 3/15/18  
** **Changes:** Changed some things around in the fight scene.

 **Further changes complete on 9/13/18  
Important changes:** -Kelly calls for ammo change far earlier than previously.  
-Gave slightly more detail on the robots' functions.  
-Removed Kelly's _stupid_ monologue right before death.  
-Made Chell _far_ less gun-savvy. I mean seriously; who ever heard of a mute, scientifically-inclined individual pick up a gun and instantly know how to use it well enough to single-handedly take out several armies?


	4. Ch4 Interrogation

**(A/N):** I'm going to do something slightly different with the reviews. I'm going to post the review along with the reply so people don't need to go to the review section to know what I'm talking about (not the whole review, just the part I want to address). Also, just for fun, let's review how many times I've said review just in this note.

 **Skills: Chell doesn't really fight as she solves puzzles.**

I agree. I did my best to incorporate that into her fighting style. Her weapons are nowhere near as powerful as what other hunters use, so she has to strategize more.

 **Rocketmce: I've never played Half-Life, so I don't know the Black Mesa side of things will go.**

I will do my best to make it so you don't need to know that about Half-Life.

* * *

Detective Cochese walked into the room where his partner, Bobby, was looking over the evidence.

"Morning Cochese."

"Hey Bobby. This the stuff from the warehouse?"

"Yep."

Bobby stepped aside to reveal a table of sleek, black weapons.

Cochese whistled. "That's a lot of guns. Wait..."

Bobby turned to his partner. "Yeah?"

"Why are there so many? I heard there were only two people there."

"Look over there."

Bobby pointed to the other end of the room. Cochese followed his gesture to see a large heap of scrap.

"Wow... are those..."

"A whole bunch of robot parts. I have the report right here." Bobby pulled out his scroll and examined it. "From what the techies can tell, they're very similar to the Atlestian Knights, but they couldn't find anything that looked like a built-in weapon system. Also, a majority of them seem to have... let's see here..." He scrolled down the list. "'Initiated a self-destruct protocol rather than be affected by an external explosion. As a result, the internal workings were heavily damaged, making further analysis impossible.'" He put his scroll down and moved to the table opposite the one with the guns.

"And these are presumed to belong to the suspect." On the desk was a scroll, a backpack, an orange jumpsuit, a pair of boots, and a weapon quite unlike the others. Bobby picked up one of the boots

"These things apparently make the wearer run faster and jump higher due to the springs. Sounds fun, huh? I've been wondering where I can get some."

Cochese rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Rookie."

"Hey, we've been partners for five years. When are you going to stop calling me Rookie?

"As soon as you stop acting like one." Cochese glanced at the other unique item on the table. "What about that thing?"

Bobby noticed his gaze. "Oh, that. We don't know. Everyone's been too scared to give it a thorough examination."

"Why?"

"You try picking it up."

Cochese picked up the white gun that somewhat reminded him of an insect, and held it as if he was going to shoot it.

" _Warning! User biometrics not on file. Continued attempts to operate this device will result in the delivery of a five million volt electrical pulse. Aperture Science does not take responsibility for any injury, temporary or otherwise, caused by unauthorized usage of Aperture Science technology."_

Cochese immediately dropped the gun and glared at Bobby, who was trying (poorly) to hide his smile. "Ha, ha. Very funny. Come on; let's go question the girl they brought in."

As they walked to the interrogation room, Bobby tried to get Cochese to think about something other than Bobby scaring his pants off.

"Hey."

"What?" Cochese grumbled in response.

"Do you have any idea what 'Aperture Science' is?"

"No, I don't." It wasn't working.

* * *

Chell was bored. She had managed to snap out of her funk by the time she was taken to the precinct, where she was just left alone. Her scroll was taken away, so she didn't know exactly how long she sat there, but it felt like hours. At least at _that place_ , there was always something to do.

Eventually the door opened and two detectives walked in.

"Good morning. I am Detective Cochese and this is my partner, Bobby. We'd like to ask a few questions, if that's alright with you."

Chell nodded.

"Alright. First I'm going to go over what we know. At 1:15 AM, a call came in over the emergency line reporting what sounded like a shootout in the warehouse district. Twenty minutes later, a SWAT team arrived at the scene to find eight destroyed robots, one dead man, and you."

 _That fight lasted twenty minutes? It seemed shorter._

"We've assumed that the robots and man were working together, due to the fact they had similar weaponry. Is that correct?

Chell nodded.

"And because no one else was at the warehouse, they were fighting you. Right?

Another nod.

"Did they attack first?"

Nod.

"So you would say that you acted in self-defense." This wasn't so much a question as a statement. Chell still nodded.

"Was there anyone else with you?"

This time, Chell shook her head.

"Are you a Huntress?"

Shake

"So you expect me to believe that you took on an entire group of robots and their leader single-handedly… without training."

Nod

Cochese placed his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Do you really expect us to believe that?"

Chell rolled her eyes, though the detectives either didn't notice or didn't care.

Bobby spoke up. "Look, I know you're trying to protect someone, and I understand. But whoever sent those robots will probably be looking for them, and you. If you tell us who it is, we can help you."

Chell gave him a look, but Cochese didn't get the hint. "Alright then. I guess we can charge you with obstruction of justice, if that's what yo..."

Chell swiveled her head and glared at him. Cochese stopped talking immediately. He didn't know exactly what, but there was something in those eyes that scared him, although he would never admit it.

Bobby cleared his throat and said, "Let's come back to this. Right now the bigger question is who sent those robots and why. Do you have any ideas?"

Chell thought about it for a moment. _I could tell them, but that would lead to questions that I don't want to answer. Besides, if Black Mesa is anything like Ap-_ that place _, everything about it will be beyond top secret._ Chell shook her head.

Cochese opened his mouth to ask another question, but then closed it and put his hand to his ear. "What?... Who?... For Real?... Alright." He put his hand down, stood up, and turned to Bobby. "Let's go."

"Why?"

"Apparently somebody managed to pull a few strings. They're coming to question her themselves."

"But we haven't gotten anything out of her yet! Who is it, anyway?"

"They didn't say, but whoever it is has some friends in high places. Come on, I don't want to get fired over this."

Bobby mused on this a few moments before getting up as well. The two detectives then walked out the door, leaving Chell alone once more. She sighed.

 _Not again… why couldn't they at least give me a magazine or something?_

* * *

This time Chell was only alone for a few minutes before two new people entered. Chell gave them a once-over. They were most definitely _not_ police.

She might not have had much social experience, but she knew how to read people. These two carried themselves in a way that just screamed experience, although the male seemed much more relaxed. He was wearing a green shirt under a black vest and unzipped suit and his pants were a very dark green. He also held a walking stick in one hand.

He took a seat across from Chell. "I must say, it isn't often that someone draws my attention quite like you do. Although, it has seemed to be happening more frequently."

"..."

"Anyways, you survived a firefight whilst outnumbered nine-to-one. That is most impressive accomplishment. Have you attended Signal, or any of the other combat schools?"

Shake.

"So, are you going to continue saying that you have had no training at all?"

Nod.

The women standing near the door stepped forward. "Do you honestly expect anyone to believe that? That's impossible!"

The man leaned back in his chair. "Not impossible, Glynda. Just improbable. And if she is lying, which I don't think she is, then I'm sure there's a good reason." He turned back to Chell. "Do you know who I am?"

Shake.

"My name is Ozpin. I'm the headmaster at Beacon Academy."

 _Is that supposed to impress me?_ They stared at each other in silence for a few moments. If Ozpin was expecting Chell to ask him something, he was going to wait a _long_ time. Eventually, he got the memo.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here."

"..."

"I'll get straight to the point; I would like you to attend my school. What happened at the warehouse proved that you have great potential. At Beacon, we can teach you to hone that potential to help others. If you say no, however, then I won't try to persuade you otherwise."

Chell thought about this for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of the offer. On one hand, she wouldn't have to worry about living conditions and Black Mesa probably wouldn't try such a bold move if she was surrounded by elite fighters (even if they were just in training). But saying in one place would make her much easier to track down. Then again, they didn't seem to have much trouble last time.

After a few moments of pondering, Chell decided the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. If she could survive _there_ , she was sure she could survive high school.

She nodded, and Ozpin smiled. "Wonderful. I assure you, you've made the right choice. Well then Miss… come to think of it, I don't know your name."

Then, for the first day since BYDtWD, Chell spoke, her voice raspy from disuse.

"It's Chell."

* * *

 **(A/N):** I meant to have this ready by yesterday, but I just lost interest for a little while. Sorry. I will try to have the next one up by Saturday, but don't hold me to that.

 **Revision complete on 3/19/18  
Changes:** Absolutely nothing of significance.  
 **9/17/18:  
** -Made the cops slightly less stereotypical.


	5. Ch5 Initiation

**(A/N):** I would like to thank Cheese Wagon for the new title.

 **Delta prime: Only issue I can think of is that Ozpin asked her to attend his school too early… ...I'm also interested to see what you'll do about her team.**

You're right about Ozpin now that I think about it, so I've added somewhat of an explanation in this chapter. Regarding her team, I originally planned to go with the "doesn't have a team" route, but you're right, she should have a team.

* * *

"So, Chell, do you have a last name?" Ozpin asked Chell. They were sitting in a bullhead en route to Beacon.

 _My last name… just another link to the past I don't want._ Chell shook her head no.

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened in that warehouse?"

"Robots showed up. Tried to kill me," Chell responded. She had yet to speak in complete sentences. Old habits die hard, after all.

"Do you know why they were after you?"

Chell shook her head.

"Hmmm. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to you? Before the warehouse, I mean."

Chell looked away.

"I see. If you don't want to talk about it, then I won't pressure you. Regardless, we're coming up to Beacon. Would you like to take a look?" He gestured to the window. Chell decided to humor him. She was not disappointed.

Beacon was beautiful, especially with the sunrise directly behind the main tower. It somewhat reminded her of the fairy tales her adopted father read to her when she was younger. He was much nicer than any of the other scientists. But then GLaDOS came online and…

Chell shook herself out of her thoughts. That was in the past, and this was her chance to restart her life. All she needed to do was never look back.

The bullhead eventually landed and the doors opened. Chell hopped out and stretched. She was followed by Ozpin and Glynda.

"First things first," Ozpin said, "we should get you to the medical wing. Follow me." He turned to his assistant. "Glynda, meet me in my office."

* * *

Several minutes later Ozpin stepped out of the elevator and into his office where Glynda was waiting.

"Now, do you have anything you wish to bring up?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact I do. Why are you so trusting of that woman? You talked with her for a minute before inviting her here. For all you know, she might be working with…"

"I understand your concerns. But I can say with one hundred percent certainty she is not involved with _them_ at all.

"And how do you know that?"

Ozpin took out his scroll. "When I heard about the incident at the warehouse, I had a friend in the police send me some pictures of the evidence. Here." He handed her his scroll.

Glynda looked at the picture on the display. It was the backside of an orange jumpsuit. In the middle was a large symbol that resembled the iris of a camera. She looked back to the headmaster.

"And how does this prove anything?"

"Well… let me tell you."

* * *

Chell watched the doctor walk out of the room. He had told her to stay in bed for the rest of the day in order to allow her aura to recharge and heal the many wounds across her body. Not that she had a problem with that.

She grabbed her scroll from the table next to the bed and browsed the available icons. The one with a picture of a portal gun caught her eye. It opened with a touch to display a menu with the title _"ASHMFD."_ Under the header was a list of options.

 _Details  
Schematics  
Maintenance  
Settings_

Chell checked out each selection in order. Details turned out to be an in-depth explanation of all the gun's features, Schematics had many blueprints available, Maintenance had information on basic upkeep, and Settings was pretty much self-explanatory. After what felt like several hours of examination, Chell had enough and swapped over to a web browser.

Time to see what's been happening in the years she's been on ice.

* * *

 _Five days later_

"Up and at 'em team!" a high-pitched voice cried out, causing the inhabitants of the precariously made bunk beds to stir.

Weiss groaned. "Ruby, what is it?" she said weakly. "It's a Saturday. Let us sleep."

"He he he, sorry, but I just got a message from Ozpin. He wants everyone to meet him in the auditorium for an announcement."

"What kind of announcement?"

"I don't know, he just said for all leaders to bring their teams to the auditorium by 9:00."

Weiss sighed and threw the covers off. She looked at the time and saw that it was just after 8:00. "But breakfast first."

* * *

After a hearty meal, RWBY arrived at the auditorium with only a few moments to spare. They quickly slid into their seats, right next to Team JNPR.

"There you are!" whispered Jaune. "We were getting worried. What took you so long?"

Ruby responded with a simple "Breakfast."

"Shh, it's starting," said Ren.

The teams focused their attention on the stage, where Ozpin and Glynda were standing.

"Psssst, who's that girl in orange?" Nora asked, pointing. The teams followed her finger to see said girl in orange standing next to the professors.

Yang tilted her head. "Could that be the hospital girl?"

Both teams stared at her. "The who?" Jaune asked.

"Oh, it's just a rumor. Basically, someone said there was a stranger staying in the med wing, recovering from Aura Exhaustion or something.

They were interrupted by the sound of a cane rapping against the ground, followed by the clearing of a throat. Everyone turned their attention to the headmaster.

"Now, I am sure all of you are curious about why I have called you here today. Well, I will get straight to the point. I would like you all to meet Chell Renge."

 _Renge, huh. I wonder where he got that,_ Chell thought as she stepped forward. _Oh well, I kind of like it._

"Chell was supposed to start at the beginning of the year, but couldn't due to events of a personal nature that she would rather not be made public. Today, she is to attempt the initiation. If she is successful, she will be assigned to a team that has already been formed. The initiation will commence at 10:00. That is all."

As the auditorium emptied, Nora asked "What do you think he meant by 'events of a personal nature?'"

"I don't know," Weiss answered. "But is it just me, or does she look a little old for a first year?"

* * *

By 9:55, students had once again gathered in the auditorium to watch the initiation on the large screens. Among the crowd, teams RWBY and JNPR were talking amongst themselves.

"All I'm saying is, why have her start now?" Weiss said. "Wouldn't it make more sense for her to start at the beginning of the next semester?"

"Well, maybe Ozpin wants her to start as soon as possible so she doesn't have to catch up as much," Yang answered.

They glanced at the woman in question on the display. Ozpin was explaining the rules to to her, although she seemed more interested in the panels on the ground.

"Maybe, but the second semester only starts in a week or so. It just seems odd, that's all."

"Hey, what's she doing?" Jaune asked, interrupting their conversation.

They turned their attention back to Chell. Ozpin had finished his explanation and was stepping back. Chell, rather than getting ready, was on her knees examining the plate that would start her initiation. She leaned over and appeared to brush some dirt off it. After looking over it for a few more seconds, she got up and walked away.

"Unbelievable!" Weiss screamed. "She hasn't even begun and she's already giving up?" And she wanted to become a huntress?"

" _Can't say I blame her"_ Jaune muttered.

"Her body language seemed to suggest she knew what was about to happen," Ren noticed. "I wonder how."

"That doesn't matter! She's…"

Uh, Weiss?" Ruby interrupted before she got out of hand. "You may want to take another look."

Everyone turned back to the monitor to see Chell had stopped and was turning back to Ozpin.

"You were saying?" Yang asked sarcastically.

"Hmph! We'll see if she's ready for this responsibility."

Chell nodded to Ozpin. He pulled out his scroll and held it like a microphone.

"Attention students," his voice rang out through the auditorium's speakers. "The initiation will now commence." He put his scroll away and said something to Chell. Most likely "When you are ready," or something along those lines.

She shifted her weight onto the springs of the weird boots she was wearing, then broke into a run towards the launcher. Before she stepped on it, she jumped, landing dead center. As she was catapulted into the forest, Ren said "Okay, she definitely knew what those were."

The view shifted to a camera on the ground that was zoomed in and following Chell's descent.

"So what do you think her landing strategy is going to be?" Ruby asked. Her question was answered when Chell landed without doing anything to slow down. A collective groan of sympathy pain and/or disappointment rolled over the crowd. Particularly Jaune, who almost had that happen to him.

"Oh, Oum, is she okay?" one student cried out. Almost as if fate was replying to him, Chell stood back up, looking none the worse for wear. The groaning was replaced stunned silence.

"Wow," Blake said slowly. "That was actually kind of impressive."

"Yeah," Yang concurred, "I mean, I could probably handle something like that, but that's only 'cause my aura's super strong. Is that how she survived?"

"Oh Yang, don't tell me you're _falling_ for her," Nora teased.

"Hey! That's my job, Missy!"

* * *

The caw of a Nevermore sounded overhead. Chell couldn't see it under the thick cover of the trees, but she held her gun tightly just in case something showed up.

Something like, say, the hungry Beowolf that suddenly dropped down behind her. Chell whipped around, leapt backwards, and placed a puddle of repulsion gel between her and the Grimm.

Fortunately, this particular Grimm wasn't the brightest and only focused on one thing; its prey. It howled and charged, headless of the substance in its path. That was its downfall. The moment it made contact with the gel, it was sent flying. Chell ducked as the Beowolf soared overhead, landing on its back.

As it struggled to get up, it was disoriented even more by a laser to its face. It was wounded, but not quite dead yet, so Chell finished it off with a stab to the throat.

Unfortunately, she had forgotten about the Nevermore. Razor-sharp feathers rained down from above. It didn't know exactly where Chell was, but it knew she was there somewhere. One of the projectiles found its mark, scraping across her aura.

Chell knew she had to move quickly, so she swapped to propulsion gel and used it to get away quickly. After a few seconds, Chell was temporarily blinded by light. After her eyes adjusted, she looked up. She had run into a clearing, with the Nevermore circling above.

Chell switched back to laser mode and opened fire. The Nevermore was knocked off course slightly but quickly corrected itself and dived, beak open and talons outstretched. Chell dived to the side whilst returning fire in short bursts.

Straightening herself back up, Chell faced the Nevermore and waited.

* * *

"Uh, what's she doing?" Jaune asked. "She's a sitting duck if she's not moving!"

"She has a plan. See the way she's looking at the Nevermore? She's waiting for it to make a move," said Pyrrha.

On screen, the Grimm pulled its wings back to launch another wave of feathers. Chell grinned and shot a pulse of energy at the ground behind it.

"What was that?" someone in the audience asked.

The Nevermore flung its feathers forward, but Chell still didn't move. Instead, she shot another pulse at her feet and… fell? The crowd didn't have any time to process what happened before the feathers hit the ground and disappeared the same way Chell did, only to reappear where she shot the first pulse and fly back up, right into the Nevermore, killing it. As it fell to the ground, everyone was silent until…

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

A scream so high pitched it could break glass.

"Oh-my-god-sisdid-you-see-that-she-has-a-gun-that-can-teleport-things-I've-seen-some-amazing-weapons-before-but-nothing-even-comes-close-to-this-oh-my-god-this-is-the best thing EVER!

"Ruby, please calm down," said Yang whilst covering her ears.

"Calm down? How can you say that? Did you miss the whole teleporting gun thing?"

"Ruby, please, not even Atlas has that kind of technology," Weiss reasoned. "It's obviously just her semblance."

"But she used her gun to do it."

"Well, it's probably like Myrtenaster and my glyphs."

Ruby thought about this for a few moments before sighing. "I guess… I still think it's pretty cool…"

"I never said it wasn't."

Meanwhile, Yang had been thinking about the best thing she possibly could say. After a while, she figured it out. "My favorite thing about it is how _portalable_ it is. Ehh? Ehh?" Everyone in earshot proceeded to groan and facepalm.

* * *

Chell continued to wander north. Luckily there was no resistance after the Nevermore. After a few minutes of walking and checking her scroll to make sure she was going the right direction, Chell eventually came across what must have been the temple that Ozpin referred to.

Inside the ruins were multiplied pedestals that presumably held the relics, although only one was currently occupied. Chell picked up the sole relic.

It was a chess piece, more specifically, a golden colored queen. Examining it, Chell didn't find anything to suggest it was anything more than it appeared to be. She pocketed it and turned to go to the extraction point, when she heard a low growl coming from the other side of the wall.

Slowly turning the corner, Chell came face to face with a horrifying sight.

An Ursa Major was standing there, glaring. Chell could have sworn there was someone standing behind it, but by the time she realized it, he or she was gone. Chell decided to solve this mystery later, because now she had a much bigger problem to worry about. She glanced at the wall behind her.

It was curved, but looked to be just flat enough to sustain a portal, and Chell did so, with another portal on the ground somewhere.

The Ursa charged Chell, who was standing just in front of her portal. As soon as the bear-looking Grimm pulled back its paw for a deadly swing, Chell dived to the side. The Ursa didn't have time to change the trajectory of its strike, and its momentum propelled it into the portal where it got stuck mid way through due to the size difference.

As it struggled to free itself, Chell canceled the portals. Normally a portal closing forces objects within it outwards, stopping things from getting sliced in half. This probably wasn't intentional, giving Aperture's complete disregard for safety, but it was useful. However, if something was too big, it wouldn't have enough time to move out of the way... Chell hoped.

A roar of pain rewarded Chell's gamble. She turned around to see the Grimm glaring at her with even more hatred than before, if that was even possible. Half of its right arm was severed, although that was all, unfortunately.

 _It's probably not going to fall for the same trick twice_. Chell fired her laser into the eyes of the angry creature. The blast hit, the beast roared in agony, stumbled blindly to where Chell had been standing, and took a swing. It missed, and took several sniffs in the air as it tried to relocate her by scent.

Chell, who was standing right behind it with her blade out, didn't give it a chance. She stabbed through both legs, being careful to aim her strikes inbetween the armor. The Ursa fell over, now only having one functioning limb. Chell casually walked over to its neck and stabbed it repeatedly until it let out a death rattle.

Chell got up and headed in the direction of the bullhead that was supposed to pick her up. As she walked, her thoughts wandered to the person she saw behind the Ursa. By the time she reached the airship though, she had dismissed it as her imagination. After all, there was no way anyone could just stand there without becoming a Grimm's newest chew toy.

* * *

 **(A/N):** I'm not that happy with the end of this chapter, but I just needed to end it. I didn't want it to feel like I was dragging it on for as long as possible and just adding more fluff than necessary.

I liked writing Yang, mostly because I do just as much pun-making in real life.

For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be taking a small break and shifting my writing to a lower gear, so expect slower or shorter updates.

That's pretty much all I need to say, so see ya next time (whenever that may be).

 **Revision completed on 3/24/18  
** **Changes:** Added scene with Chell in hospital bed, also gave her an extra day of rest.  
 **9/18/18:**  
-Increased Chell's recovery time from one day to five.  
-Decided to bump Chell's age up a bit; she is now in her early twenty's.


	6. Ch6 Integration

**(A/N):** Well, here it is. Finally. I'm sorry it took this long, and I don't have an excuse, aside from this formula;

Lack of interest + distractions = Valve time.

Regardless, I hope I will be able to release further chapters regularly. In the meantime, enjoy.

Reviews:

 _ **Rocketmce:**_ _Just out of curiosity, how old is Chell?_

It doesn't really matter story-wise, but let's say somewhere between 17 and 20 (outdated, I changed it so she is now 22).

* * *

After completing the initiation, Chell stood on stage once more. Ozpin stood in front of her.

"Chell Renge, you have successfully navigated the Emerald Forest and retrieved your relic. Congratulations." He turned to the side. "Please step forward."

Three people stepped in from offstage.

The first was a girl wearing a light blue jacket over a grey sweater. Her hair was dark brown with blue streaks and tied up behind a headband. A dog tail poked out from behind her.

"Hey good lookin'. Want to go get something to eat after this is all done? I know a place that serves great fried chicken."

Chell looked over at the new voice. Standing next to the girl was a skinny boy wearing a red shirt, a duffel bag on his back, a ball cap, and a wireless headset that probably linked to his scroll. _Is he… hitting on me?_

"Jeremy, please," the girl groaned.

"Oh, don't be jealous Alyce. There's plenty of me to go around." Alyce facepalmed. Fortunately, they were spared any more embarrassing pick-up attempts by a massive hand being placed on Jeremy's shoulder.

Chell followed the arm it was attached to up to a man who could give Kelly a run for his money in terms of size. He wore a vest over a stark white shirt with his personal emblem- a fist- on its short sleeves. A bandolier filled with bullets wrapped around his chest, and he was bald with a beard.

"Is not time for that," he said in a thick, deep voice.

Ozpin brought all attention back to him by clearing his throat. "As you may be aware, these three," he gestured to the newcomers, and Chell got the impression he was talking more to her than the crowd,"were assigned together due to the uneven amount of students that were available at the time teams were formed. However, that situation has now rectified itself. So…" Images of the four appeared on the screens above them.

"Chell Renge. Alyce Vance. Gary Quartz. And Jeremy Venetian. The four of you retrieved the Queen pieces. Therefore, from this day forward the four of you will work together as Team VRJG, led by…" Chell rolled her eyes at the dramatic pause. She had looked at some records on the ride back, and it was already fairly obvious who the leader was just by the placement of letters in the name.

"...Alyce Vance." Yep. The first in the name, just like all the other teams.

The crowd applauded. Chell looked over to her new team to see how they were reacting to the news. _They don't seem that surprised. Maybe she was still the leader before I came here. Jeremy is giving her quite the stink eye though._

Ozpin waited for the crowd to settle down slightly before finishing. "Yes, thank you. You are dismissed now." As the room slowly emptied he turned back to Chell and pulled a piece of paper out from his jacket.

"This is a list of required textbooks. You may pick them up from the library tomorrow. Also, you will be assigned some extra work to catch you up with everyone else. Your team should be able to help you with that though. In the meantime, I'd suggest you explore and get familiar with the school."

Chell took the paper from his hand and nodded in thanks.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," he said, adjusting his glasses. "Chell Renge, welcome to Beacon."

* * *

The first stop on Chell's tour was the Dining Hall.

"I was thinking we should have lunch before anything else. I know was certainly hungry after I went through initiation."

Chell looked over at Alyce, her impromptu guide.

"Most of the food the school pays for, within reason. As long as you don't eat too much, you should be fine."

"Gary learn that the hard way," said Gary.

"Anyway, they have quite a large selection. Chicken, salad, noodles, even some cake if you have a sweet tooth." Chell's eye twitched slightly.

Eventually the team got their food and sat down together. Gary ate a sandwich, Alyce had sausage, and Jeremy enjoyed some fried chicken. _I really hope this isn't where he asked me out to, because that's just sad._

Chell closed her eyes and bit down on her burger, washing it down with a soda. It was so long since she had managed to enjoy her food like this.

That is until a very arrogant looking kid started pulling on the ears of a rabbit faunus sitting at the table across from her. Chell's face quickly turned from an expression of shock to one of anger as she slowly reached down for her gun, which she hadn't had time to put away.

Alyce saw this and looked over at where Chell was focusing her gaze. "Oh, not again," she groaned, getting up to confront the bully.

"Hey! Cardin!"

Cardin turned around. "Oh look, it's the mutt come to defend her friend."

Alyce clenched her fist. "Knock it off Cardin," she said slowly, seething with anger.

"Ha ha, or what, you'll run off to Ozpin with your tail between your legs?" He started laughing but was interrupted by a soda can falling from the ceiling and hitting him on the head. "Wh-who did that?"

Everyone around him snickered as he tried to wipe the sticky soft drink off his face. "Stop laughing at me!" _Ironic considering what you were doing to that girl before._

Cardin snarled and walked away, obviously having enough embarrassment. Unfortunately for him he didn't notice the puddle of orange goo in front of him. That is, until he stepped in it and lost his balance, falling on his back with his head making an audible _*thunk*_ as it hit the floor.

The cafeteria filled with flat out laughter. Cardin slowly pulled himself up before fixing everyone in the room a death glare and walking away like he totally meant to do that.

Meanwhile, Chell had put her gun away and continued eating as if nothing happened. "Nice going," remarked Alyce as she slid back into her spot. "Hopefully he'll think twice before he does something like that again." Chell just shrugged.

"I'm just glad it didn't escalate that much," said Jeremy. "Can you imagine what a food fight would look like in here?

 _Yeah, like that would ever happen._

* * *

Eventually Chell's tour concluded with a trip to the armory.

"And this is where we maintain and upgrade our weapons. I'm probably not the best one to show you around here…"

"Oh, hi," a high pitched voice interrupted. The team turned to see a young girl sitting on a stool. A large mechanical scythe lay on the workbench behind her. "It's Chell, right?" Chell nodded. The girl stood up and offered her hand, which Chell shook. "My name's Ruby."

Ruby shifted her attention to behind Chell. "Hey Gary. You try those improvements to Sasha I suggested?"

Gary smiled. "Yes, I like them. Thank you."

Ruby turned back to Chell. "Anyway, welcome to the armory. Would you like me to show you around?" Chell shrugged in a way that said "why not".

"Alright. Over there's the Dust storage," she pointed to a heavy door with a warning sign on in. "That's where you can customize your gun," pointing to a section of the room with various paints and tools for emblazoning metal. "And over there is for more in-depth repairs," gesturing to a group of heavy machinery.

Alyce came back up as Ruby finished. "If you're done here, we can show you to our dorm," she said to Chell.

"Actually..." Chell's eyes drifted over the room. She nodded towards the customization area. "May I?"

"Sure, go ahead," responded Alyce "I've meaning to do some cleaning anyway." Moving to an unoccupied workspace, she reached into her jacket and pulled out a simple-looking pistol with a long magazine and pearl grips.

"Yeah, I'm out of here." Jeremy walked away. "Come get me when you're not boring."

Alyce turned to Gary. "Can you go make sure he doesn't get into any trouble?"

"Very well." Gary followed Jeremy as Chell walked over to the blast door and pressed the button next to it.

The door opened slowly to reveal shelves of Dust in both powdered and crystallized form. Recalling what she found in the Maintenance section on her scroll, she took out her gun and opened a small hatch on the bottom. From this hatch she removed four vials of various powdered Dust types, each carrying different amounts. Chell grabbed a funnel from a nearby shelf and used it to carefully refill the vials before putting them away. Chell knew exactly what each Dust was used for thanks to her scroll. Burn was used for the laser and blade. Gravity, for the Repulsion Gel and miniature black hole that generated the portals. Ice, for the Propulsion Gel. And of course Lightning, for power.

Chell exited the vault-like storage with her now full weapon and moved to a third unused space. _Now, first things first_. Chell picked up an airbrush and filled it with white paint, applying it to a small section on the front of her gun.

As she ensured she had completely covered what she wanted, Chell didn't notice Ruby sneaking up behind her. "So how does that work?" Chell was shocked and dropped her weapon. Fortunately Ruby managed to catch it before it hit the ground by using her semblance. She held it up to her face.

"You know, I've never seen a laser this compact before," she said curiously. Chell tried to ask for it back but was interrupted. "Does it have a name?"

"Ostium Mundos," Chell said meekly, before raising her hand in yet another attempt to get it back.

"That's a nice name. Mine's name is Crescent Rose." She was totally out of it. "I'm guessing there was a blemish or something you needed to fix." she said looking at where Chell painted over the Aperture logo. "So how does it work, anyway?" She gripped the handle. "I know it focuses your semblance somehow, but…"

" _Warning! User biometrics not on file. Continued attempts to operate this device will result in the delivery of a five million volt electrical pulse. Aperture Science does not take responsibility for any injury, temporary or otherwise, caused by unauthorized usage of Aperture Science technology."_

Chell's eyes widened at the mention of Aperture. She snatched the gun out of Ruby's hands and bolted out the door.

"Hey Chell, wait up!" Alyce sprinted after her partner, leaving a confused Ruby in her wake.

* * *

Chell eventually came to a stop in a small corner of the campus before leaning back and taking a deep breath. She opened her scroll and browsed through Ostium's settings. After a few moments of searching she found what she wanted. _Here we are; security._ The menu displayed on the screen was as follows;

 _In the event of unauthorized access, the device will:_

 _[ ] Do nothing  
_ _[ ] Lockdown  
_ _[X] Audible warning, followed by discouragement  
_ _[ ] Immediate discouragement_

Chell set the option to _lockdown_ and put the scroll away as a out-of-breath Alyce came running up.

"How _*huff*_ did you _*huff*_ keep running _*huff*_ for so long?" After a few more seconds of panting she managed to stand back up straight, albeit shakily. "Anyway, are you alright? I was worried about you."

Chell nodded. "Good. Why'd you run off anyways? Did it have anything to do with that warning your gun gave off?" Chell looked away. "Oh, you don't want to talk about it. That's fine, I understand. Well, if you ever decide you do want to talk about it, I'm here for you. We are partners after all."

She offered her hand. Chell looked at it a few moments before shaking it. "Alright. Now, let me show you to our dorm."

* * *

"She did WHAT?" screamed Yang.

Ruby flinched backwards. "Calm down Yang, she just shoved me."

"And why would she do that?"

"Well, I was taking a look at her gun when it suddenly spoke…"

"Wait wait wait," Weiss interrupted with a condescending tone. "The gun… spoke to you."

"Yea, some kind of prerecorded message. It said something about 'Aperture Science' and an electrical pulse. Then she got this spooked look in her eyes and shoved me, took her gun back, and ran off."

Everyone was silent for a moment before Blake poke her head out from behind her book. "Are you saying she's hiding something?"

"I guess..." Weiss said absentmindedly.

Yang through her two cents in. "Hey, remember how she examined the panel before being launched during the initiation? Maybe tomorrow we could see what she was looking at." This was met by general sounds of agreement, except from Weiss, who looked deep in thought

Ruby noticed this and asked "Weiss? You okay?"

She was answered by a murmur. "Aperture… Aperture… Where have I heard that name before?"

* * *

Later that night, all of team RWBY was fast asleep aside from the other Ruby, who just got back from using the bathroom. Just as she was about to climb into her hastily assembled bunk, something moved in the corner of her eye. She peered out the window and saw someone creeping around outside with something under their arm. It was dark outside, but with just enough light to make out the figure. Ruby pushed the window open and climbed out and up to the roof.

Down on the ground, Chell felt like she was being watched. She took a quick look around, but Ruby ducked out of sight before Chell's eyes moved up to where she was watching from. Chell paused before continuing to her destination, taking occasional glances to hopefully catch her supposed tail. Ruby just barely managed to avoid detection, and definitely would have been spotted had it been just a bit lighter out.

 _I'm probably just being paranoid._ Chell thought when she looked back for the fifth time. She eventually arrived at the dumpster she was headed to. She opened it and took one last look at the objects she carried. _I would much rather burn these, but a fire would draw too much attention._ Chell dropped it into the dumpster unceremoniously and started to walked back to her dorm.

Ruby clambered down from the roof as soon as she was sure Chell was really gone. She pulled out the bundle of clothing Chell dumped and took a good look at it. It was an orange jumpsuit and white tank top, nothing special. Except for the word "Aperture" and a logo on both articles of clothing.

Ruby didn't know quite what to make of this, but "Aperture" came up before. Maybe the rest of her team could make something out of this. She grabbed both of them and headed back to her room, careful to not be spotted by anyone who might be out for whatever reason.

* * *

So, I broke the color-naming rule with the team… opps. Oh well, maybe Verge is a color in another language. Probably not. But hey, at least I kept it in place for the individuals.

 **Revisions complete on 3/29/18  
** **Changes:** Made Ruby the one who followed Chell instead of Blake, as that was just too hypocritical for me. I originally just ignored that fact because Blake was the resident ninja, but I changed my mind.


	7. Ch7 and Investigations

Reviews:

 _ **-Delta prime:**_ _… What is Chell's semblance?.._

I brought that up in the first chapter, although if you missed it, I can't blame you. It was basically just a huge info dump and I'm not as proud of it as the other chapters.

* * *

The next morning, Team RWBY got out of bed before getting dressed and discussing their plan of attack.

"I still think we should investigate the initiation launchers," stated Yang.

Ruby responded "Actually, there's something I need to bring up." She went over to the bunk on the right and pulled out two pieces of clothing from under it. "Late last night, Chell was sneaking around to throw these out." She laid them out on the floor.

Weiss was confused. "When you say 'throw out,' do you mean…"

"In the trash."

"Why would she need to sneak around to get rid of some old clothes?"

"Look closer."

Yang decided to do just that. Starting with the jumpsuit, she noticed a large logo on the back and "Aperture" stitched on what would be the right breast, were it being worn. The tank top held a emblem similar to the one on the suit, but one of the shapes was replaced with the first letter of Aperture, with the word "Laboratories" beneath it. "Wait, wasn't Aperture the word that got her all spooked?"

"Yeah. It looks like a nametag on the suit. Could that be her real name?"

Blake shook her head. "No, because then why would it be on the tank top as well?"

"Maybe this 'Aperture Laboratories' was named after her?"

"Hmmm… that could be… Although that's a pretty weird name. Can't be discounted though."

Suddenly out of nowhere, Weiss huffed in frustration.

"Weiss… you alright?" Ruby asked her partner.

I'm fine, Ruby, it's just… I know I've seen that name somewhere before."

"You mean Aperture? Where?"

"I don't know… I think it somewhere Schnee Dust Company records. Maybe I can see if there's something there next time I get a chance. In the meantime, let's go check out that panel. Maybe we can find something there."

* * *

Meanwhile, Chell was also awake and picking up her textbooks at the library. _Let's see… there it is._ She grabbed a book with the title " _History: Huntsmen and Huntresses_ " off the shelves, crossing it off her list. _Alright, that was the last one. Now, for some unrequired reading._

Her bag was already full, so Chell placed the book under her arm before walking over to the help desk. "Excuse me?"

The woman at the desk looked up from her screen. "Yes?"

"I'm looking for books."

The staff member chuckled. "Well, you've certainly came to the right place. Looking for anything in particular?"

Chell nodded. "Recent events. And science laboratories."

The woman turned back to her screen and typed out a few keywords. She then took a slip of paper and wrote something down before giving it back to Chell. "Here's a few call numbers that might help. Is there anything else?"

Chell smiled. "No, thank you."

* * *

"Alright, here we are," said Yang as they reached the cliff. She turned around. "So how should we do this?" Her eyes glanced over the two people assembled there. "Wait, where's Ruby?"

Weiss and Blake looked over at where Ruby was just a few seconds ago to find only a trail of petals leading towards the edge. They all followed it with their eyes to where, sure enough, Ruby was already hunched over one of the launchers trying to get a good look at it.

Yang's eyes widened. "Ruby, get away from there!"

Ruby jumped back. "What is it?"

Yang jogged over. "Those things might activate and launch you into the forest!"

"Relax, Yang. It's not like they'd leave something like that on."

Weiss decided to butt in. "Still, you never know. Seriously, show some common sense." She made a few movements in the air with her hands, and a white symbol appeared in midair above the square plate. "There, now it's safe."

"Hold on," Blake murmured to herself as she knelt down.

"What is it?" Ruby asked

Blake used her hands to brush away some loose dirt along the border of the metal square. "I think I saw something buried along the edges." As she moved the earth around, her fingers brushed a cool, smooth surface. She then stepped back to get a better look.

"Wow, you have good eyes."

"Err, thanks," Blake said nervously.

Weiss scratched her chin. "Well I suppose that makes sen-"

She was interrupted by the sound of Ember Celica firing. The shot landed right in the middle of the Beacon symbol and the plate flew backwards. A moment of silence followed, before Weiss exploded.

"What..? What happened to playing it safe?"

"Meh, I was bored."

"You were BORED? What's going to happen when Ozpin finds out?"

"Hey, take a look at this," Blake interrupted their fight. They both turned to see that what Yang shot off was only a cover attached to what was presumably the real launcher.

It was a very dark grey, and seemed to be slightly transparent, allowing them to get a small look at the mechanism inside. The piece that did the actual launching was oval shaped, with what appeared to be a light in the middle, though it was currently off. Possibly the most important detail, however, was the familiar logo on the frame.

"So that's how she knew about these," Yang stated.

"But... they look completely different with the panel on," countered Ruby.

Weiss was quiet for a moment before speaking her thoughts. "Maybe she's just so familiar with these that she recognized it regardless. If someone took Crescent Rose and repainted it, you would still know what it is instantly."

"I don't think it really matters," Blake cut in. "What we should be focusing on is why this symbol is here."

"Hmm… Ozpin might know something," Weiss speculated. "We could ask him."

Suddenly a growl loud enough to make an Ursa blush surrounded them. Everyone glanced around nervously, except for Ruby, who instead looked embarrassed slightly.

"Heh, that was me. Sorry. Could we get something to eat first?" The team put the pieces together and relaxed.

"Yeah…" Yang said slowly. "I think it is about time for launch." The others simply eye-rolled.

* * *

Chell flipped through her book, trying to find something specific. After a few minutes of searching, she put it off to the side. _Nothing. Good. I'm sure important people know, but if this book is anything to go by, the general public should be unaware of_ That Place _._

The door to the dorm suddenly opened and in walked Alyce. "Hey. The boys and I were about to go grab some lunch, want to come?"

Chell nodded and stood up. As she walked to the door, Alyce picked up the book Chell put down. "' _Influential Corporations in the World of Science.'_ You interested in science?" Chell's eyes widened in panic for a split second before returning to normal as she turned back to Alyce and slowly nodded. "Me too. How'd you get into it?"

Chell thought for a moment before responding "My father." It wasn't really a lie; her adopted father _was_ a scientist.

"Heh, small world." Alyce's expression turned sad for a moment as her eyes darted towards a picture next to her bed. Chell never paid it much mind, but now she took a closer look.

It was in black and white and the glass on the frame was cracked slightly. It showed a faunus with dark skin and dog ears behind a lighter skinned woman of which Chell couldn't tell the race. The woman held a young girl up to the camera and wore a pendant. The same pendant that was now being worn by Alyce.

"Anyway," said Alyce, shaking off the ghosts of the past, "let's go get some food. The boys are waiting for us.

* * *

The buzzer on the intercom went off in Professor Ozpin's office. Glynda turned to the headmaster. "You aren't expecting anyone, are you?"

"No…" Ozpin pressed the respond button. "Come in." The door opened and four girls walked into the room. "Ah, Team RWBY. I trust this is important?"

Ruby scratched her head nervously. "Well… not really. We were just curious about something."

Glynda started to say something but was stopped by Ozpin raising his hand. "Curiosity can be important. What is it you want to know?"

"It's about those launching pads on the cliff. We were just wondering about them."

Ozpin took a sip of his drink. "And what got you thinking about that?"

"Err..." Ruby's mind raced to think of a believable excuse. "I guess it started after watching Chell's initiation."

"Ah." RWBY's hearts beat faster in worry he might call their bluff. "Unfortunately, most of the information about them is classified. However, I can tell you that they were made by a contractor for the Atlesian Military that, to my knowledge, hasn't been around for quite some time."

"So how did you get them?" inquired Weiss.

"General Ironwood was kind enough to allow me to buy some of his older stock. Apparently, he didn't have much use for them."

Ruby didn't want to push her luck anymore. "Okay, thanks. Let's go" That last part was said to her team.

Glynda and Ozpin watched them go. As soon as the door closed, Glynda asked, "Why did you tell them?"

Ozpin took another sip of his drink. "They would have found out that much by themselves. They're stubborn like that. Also, perhaps they'll be able to get Chell to open up."

Glynda simply hummed in thought.

* * *

 **Revisions completed on 3/31/18  
Changes: **Fix inconsistency caused by previous chapter's edit.  
 **9/19/18:  
** -Changed a few things during when RWBY was investigating the faith plate.


	8. Interlude

**(A/N):** So, I would like to start off by apologising about the lack of updates recently. I suddenly got a case of writer's block, which is made even more annoying by the fact that ch.8 is almost done, and I have an outline of points to touch on. Constant irl reasons for me going out of town don't help either. So please, enjoy this short interlude that I made a while ago in the meantime, and hopefully I'll manage to finish ch.8 sometime soon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some motivational cat posters to look up.

In other news, if you go back through the chapters, you may notice I've replaced all instances of "Combat-Model" to "Battle-Model". This is just because of how I refer to them internally.

* * *

Chell groaned as she slowly woke up with a pounding head. _Is this what a hangover feels like?_ She pulled herself up and took a look around the unfamiliar room.

It looked to be some kind of interview room, complete with a desk in the center. A monitor with a orange hue to its display was attached to one of the walls and a small camera hung in the corner.

 _How did I get here? Let's see… the last thing I remember, I was at that stupid Bring your Daughter to Work Day._ As Chell walked towards the door her mind rambled on. _Seriously, why is that required? Those types of things are for kids like half my age! And what was with having to do something potato related? Aperture is weird._ She cracked a small smile. _If I had a lien for every time I thought that._

Chell reached the door and pulled on the handle, only to hear the _click-click_ of the lock. _Just perfect… alright, Plan B._ Chell pounded on the door with all her might until her hand hurt. Suddenly, the intercom clicked on.

 _"Hello and thank you for volunteering for testing at the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center. We apologize for the wait and are now ready to process your specimen."_ The voice sounded like a simple text to speech program with a female voice.

 _Enrichment center?_ Chell thought to herself. _I think I heard something about that. But what was that about volunteering? I didn't volunteer._

" _Now, before testing can commence, you must answer a few simple questions."_

Chell turned around to go take her seat, but stopped once she saw what was now displayed on screen. _What the hell? Did they take my picture when I was asleep?_ Indeed, that is what it appeared to be. Next to the picture was what looked like a form, but with only one part filled in. It read:

 _ **Important notes:**_

 _ **Subject's semblance allows for prolonged physical activity.**_

" _Please answer the following Questions in a clear voice;_

 _"Question 1-A; Why should Aperture Science accept you as a research volunteer, and would anyone file a police report if you went missing?"_

Chell sighed. She always hated it when she was forced to talk to these automated systems. However, there was one thing she could do that usually results in a real person having to get involved.

Step one; Chell took her seat and glared intently at the camera in case someone was watching

Step two; ". . ."

* * *

 **Edited on 9/21/18:  
** -Made it so Chell doesn't speak _at all_.  
-Chell is no longer "almost an adult," she _is_ an adult.


	9. Ch8 Alley Cat

**(A/N):** I am so sorry it took so long. I wanted to get this chapter out a lot sooner, but whenever I got on my computer to type, I could only write a few words before I got really anxious and not able to work at the best of my abilities. I wish I had a better excuse, but that's the truth. I will try to get the next chapter out sooner rather than later, but in the event I don't, it will still be worked on. I will not completely abandon this fanfic, and in the event I do, I will make sure to inform you via update and put this fic up for adoption.

Behind-the-scenes-wise, I have plans for the next few chapters and even a rough idea for the ending, so there's that at least.

* * *

"Well, now we know a little more," said Yang as they left the elevator.

"But he said that Aperture isn't around anymore," said Weiss. "So why does Chell carry around a gun made by them?"

"I don't know, but I think we should take a break from this," Ruby voiced. "We could go to town. I'm pretty sure that they're putting decorations for the Vytal Festival up." After a few seconds, the team decided to do just that.

* * *

Team VRJG walked out of the cafeteria. Alyce turned to her partner.

"So, Chell, we were going to go watch the preparations for the Vytal Festival. Want to come?"

Chell shook her head. "Too many people."

"Oh… you don't mind if we go without you, do you?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay." She turned to the boys behind her. "C'mon, let's go."

As VJG walked towards the airdock where they could catch a ride down to the city, Chell headed to the dorms. However, she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye. Chell whipped her head in the direction of the source, only to see nothing. She slowly looked away before snapping back. Eventually she gave up, thinking that it was just her imagination.

But then she saw another blur, this time moving to a nearby alley. Chell slowly followed, stopping at the entrance. Staring down the lane, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. After a few seconds of deliberation she stepped down the passage. Apparently, Chell never watched horror movies growing up.

Chell's view darted around the empty alley. There wasn't even a rat moving. _This feels familiar. Like that time in the warehouse when…_ Her eyes widened as she dived forward on a hunch. It was proved correct when she felt something swish by the back of her head, narrowly avoiding hitting her.

Chell got back up and turned around to find there was nothing there. But then, out of thin air, appeared a… ghost? It certainly looked like one. The figure was human shaped but was transparent, only becoming slightly visible whenever it moved. A glowing red eye sat in the middle of its head.

Chell moved her hand for Ostium, only to realize it was still in the dorm. She looked for a makeshift weapon, like a rock or something, but was interrupted by silenced bullets clashing against her aura.

Chell grabbed the lid off a nearby metal trash can and held it like a shield shortly before another burst of rounds hit. Of course, it didn't stop them, but it did slow the bullets down ever so slightly, making them deal less damage.

 _Comic books don't fail me now!_ Chell thought as she hurled the lid like a frisbee. It hit the figure's hand with a loud clang, and a handgun was sent flying, becoming visible as soon as it left the hand.

Hoping the apparition was dazed, she hurried to the resting pistol. She barely had time to grab it before something made of metal hit her back, forcing her to the ground.

Chell rolled over to see the figure leap ridiculously high with a flip and come down right on her, pinning her to the ground. Chell brought the pistol to bear and emptied the rest of the clip into the red orb in desperation, praying the recoil was more manageable than last time she fired a pistol.

The ball shattered with the sound of glass breaking as the figure went limp and slowly faded into view. As it turned out, it was just a robot, similar in design to the ones that attacked her in the warehouse, but with a few key differences.

It was painted an oily black and seemed to have much less armor than the B-models, and what it did have was far more sleek, making the bot look far more... human, for lack of a better term. Also, attached to its legs were devices similar in design to her old Knee Replacements. _So that's how it jumped so high._

Chell knew what was about to happen as she struggled against the dead weight. She managed to get free after a few attempts and stood up to run, but by then it was too late.

The explosion from the self-destruct hit her point blank, draining her aura and sending her flying. As she hit the ground, the last thing she saw before blacking out was a crowd of people rushing to see what just happened.

* * *

Chell's eyes groggily opened to find herself in a small room. She turned to her side to see a variety of medical equipment with screens monitoring her vitals.

"Ah, you're awake."

Chell looked to her other side to see where the voice came from. Sitting there was a man in a lab coat sitting behind a computer. "Where am I?"

The man grabbed the large sized scroll beside his keyboard and walked towards the bed. "You're in the Beacon Medical Center. A group of students brought you in after that explosion knocked you out." He shined a light in her eye.

 _Explosion? Oh… right._

"You've been out for a couple hours." He finished with the light and typed something on his scroll. "So… what exactly happened in that alley?"

Chell thought for a moment before deciding to tell a half truth. "Thought I saw something move."

"I'm sorry," the doctor interrupted. "Move in the alley?"

Chell nodded. "I took a look. Then I was here."

"Hmm. Darn. I was hoping you could tell me a little more. Anyway, could you please excuse me for a moment? Your team will want to know you're alright." He made his exit leaving Chell alone with her thoughts.

 _So, they're willing to come after me even here. Damn. I was hoping that the amount of people here would give them second thoughts, but how was I supposed to know they had freaking robot ninjas? Ugh… why did I say no to going out with my team? And why couldn't_ That Place _be the only one with lethal military androids?_

The door opened and the rest of her team filed into the room. She looked over at them, noticing that their faces all showed signs of concern, even Jeremy (though he was making an effort to hide it). Once they all gathered in the small room, the medic closed the door.

"Oh, thank Oum you're alright," said an obviously relieved Alyce. "I would have felt terrible if something happened to you."

Chell was slightly confused by this. "Why? We just met."

"Well yes but… we are friends, right?"

 _Friends, huh? The last person to call me that ended up trying to kill me._ Chell didn't know how to respond, but she didn't have to as Alyce continued.

"Besides, what kind of a partner would I be if I let you die before you even had your first class?" Alyce chuckled slightly but then stopped when she noticed the awkward silence in response to her joke. "Heh… anyway," she turned to the doctor. "She's going to be okay, right?"

"Well, that explosion was fairly large, but she thankfully took more concussive force than anything else." the medic explained.

"Huh?" Jeremy asked.

Alyce rolled her eyes. "She got punched instead of stabbed." she simplified.

The doc scratched his head. "I... guess you could put it that way... Regardless, her Aura is pretty weak in comparison some of the other students, but it was still enough to block any lasting damage. She should be fine now, but I'm going to write a note excusing her from any classes requiring physical activity, just to be safe."

"Not necessary," said Chell as she pulled herself up and out of bed.

"Please, I insist. I'm a doctor, and it's my job to take care of my patients." The two of them looked at each other for a few seconds before one of them gave in.

"Fine." Chell held out her hand for the slip. If her experiences before _That Day_ taught her anything, it was to never argue with a doctor. Granted, not necessarily the medical type of doctor, but still.

"Thank you Doctor!" Gary said in a slightly louder voice than necessary as he put his hand on the medics back, knocking the wind out of him.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks," said Jeremy.

Alyce and Chell, however, didn't get a chance to vocalize their appreciation before someone knocked on the door.

"I wonder who that could be?" wondered Alyce. "Come in!"

The door opened and Ozpin walked in. He glanced around the room, and said "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting, but I was hoping I could speak to Chell in private."

"Is something wrong?" Alyce asked.

"No, I just wanted to ask her what happened."

The doctor left. Jeremy and Gary moved to follow him, but were stopped by Alyce putting her arm in their way. "Sorry, but we're not going anywhere. Our teammate was attacked, and we have every reason to know what's going on." She spoke calmly, but with a tone that said she meant business.

"Fair enough, but that's not my decision." Ozpin looked at the other girl. "Chell?"

"It's fine." She knew where this was headed. It was going to happen eventually; better to get it out of the way now.

"Alright, then I suppose I should bring you three up to speed. Do you know what happened in the Warehouse District a few days ago?"

Alyce tried to recall something. "I think there was something on the news. Some kind of firefight? There weren't many details though, but they said someone was arrested. Why?"

"Yes, well, that 'someone' was Chell."

A stunned silence as the team processed this new information in their own ways. Alyce was shocked, Jeremy looked nervous, and Gary seemed somewhat contemplative. The first one to speak was Jeremy.

"Um… Professor? Are you sure she's safe? I mean, she was shooting at people!"

"They started it," Chell muttered with a hint of anger, just loud enough to be heard.

"They? They who?" inquired Alyce, hoping to defuse the situation before it escalated.

The one to answer her, however, was not Chell, but Ozpin. "I believe Miss Renge is referring to the squad of killer robots currently after her," he said lightheartedly. Alyce and Jeremy stared at him with mouths wide open. Gary, on the other hand, looked only mildly surprised.

 _Does he_ ever _show any emotion? Then again, I'm probably not one to talk._

"You- you're kidding, right?" Alyce stammered out.

"Could've used a bit more tact," murmured Chell.

Jeremy just couldn't take this. "Sorry, but no way! You expect us to believe you fought off a group of robots, all by yourself, twice?"

"Technically there was only one this time," Ozpin said calmly.

Jeremy was adamant. "Still, unless you have evidence of that, that's just not possible." Gary hmmed and slowly nodded once in agreement.

Ozpin dug into his pockets and pulled out a black gauntlet. "This was found in the alley. I trust it's proof enough for you?" He tossed the hand to Jeremy for him to look over. Alyce and Gary leaned over to get a good look at it.

Alyce hummed in thought. "Judging by the singed wires and warped metal, it looks like whatever this arm was attached to self-destructed." She looked at Chell. "I assume that's what the explosion was?" Chell nodded.

"Alright, fine!" Jeremy admitted as he carelessly threw the hand out the window. It was only after the glass shattered that he realized it was closed. Everyone looked at him with wide eyes, except Ozpin, who glared disapprovingly.

"I'd appreciate it if you _not_ destroy school property," he said sternly.

Jeremy laughed nervously, leaning backwards in what looked like an attempt to put _slightly_ more distance between him and everyone else.

Meanwhile, down below, two figures in large trench coats that hid their features in shadow were walking by. The hand dropped down and hit one, causing him or her to emit a high-pitched squeal in surprise.

In response to this, the other person let out a lower-pitched laugh and slapped one of his/her legs in amusement. The one who was hit let out a growl in annoyance and picked up the hand, pocketing it for later.

Back in the hospital, Alyce asked "So, who sent these androids, anyway?"

"Well, that's why I'm here." Ozpin looked pointedly at Chell, who instantly knew what he wanted. Her gaze fell to the floor. "You do realize that if you don't tell us, we can't help, right?

Chell knew this, of course, but was still hesitant to reveal anything about her past. _I'm never going to escape it, am I…?_ She took a deep breath and looked Ozpin square in the eye. _Screw it._

"Black Mesa."

Chell didn't quite know what kind of reaction she expected. Maybe confusion at the mention of the unfamiliar name? That's what she got from her team, at least.

"I'm sorry… What?" questioned Alyce.

But Ozpin was, like always, full of surprises. He seemed… somewhat disappointed and let out a sigh. "I was hoping that wouldn't be the case."

This time it was Chell's turn to be shocked and confused. "You… You knew?"

"I had my suspicions," Ozpin said slowly.

"Wait, what's Black Mesa?" Jeremy asked.

"I'm technically not allowed to tell you this, but…" Ozpin's eyes shifted around, almost as if to make sure there wasn't anyone else in the room. "Black Mesa is a contractor for the Atlesian Military, focused mainly on scientific R&D. More than that, I'm not too sure myself. It's all _highly_ classified."

Gary then asked the question that was on everyone's mind. "Why science people after Chell?"

"I have my suspicions, but it is not my place to say. You'll have to ask Chell for any more details. But, aside from that, there is one more thing I want to discuss." He turned to Chell. "Students aren't generally allowed to carry weapons on school grounds. This is for the safety of everyone. However, it is now clear the crowded nature of the academy isn't enough to deter attackers. Therefore, I am going to give you special permission to carry your gun at all times."

"Wh-what? That's not fair!" Jeremy exclaimed. Everyone in the room turned to him, causing him to sweat. "I-I mean… we might be targeted too…"

Ozpin hummed in thought. "I suppose you are correct. Alright then. And that goes for all of you." Jeremy's face lit up, but Ozpin wasn't finished. " _But,_ you must keep them concealed at all times. We don't want to cause a panic. So, please only take them out if you are in immediate danger. And," Ozpin's looked at Jeremy with a bit of a glare "if I hear so much as a rumor of a student bragging about how he's allowed to carry his gun, I will be forced to revoke this privilege. Understood?" Jeremy shrunk back and rapidly bobbed his head up and down. The others followed suit, but in a much less panicked way. "Good. Now, it is getting late, so I would recommend getting something to eat before the Dining Hall closes. If you'll excuse me."

Ozpin left the room, followed shortly by RJG, with Alyce staying behind. Gary noticed this and turned around. "You coming?" he asked in his deep voice.

"G- go ahead and start without me," Alyce stammered, sounding slightly preoccupied. "I'll be right there." Gary nodded and took his leave. Alyce stood up and followed suit. However, after closing the door, she went the opposite direction of her team. There was something she needed to check.

And Alyce wasn't the only one with something on her mind. _Ozpin obviously knows something about_ That Place _,_ thought Chell. _He's clearly not on Black Mesa's side, but that doesn't mean he's on_ my _side. Maybe… no, I can't risk it. There is no way I'm going back._

* * *

Alyce turned on the light to the dorm room before making a beeline to her personal belongings. After ruffling around for a bit she pulled out an old book. She smiled fondly at one of the only things to remember her father by before opening it up.

Alyce looked through the collection of Pictures before finding the one she was looking for. It showed her dad and eight others standing in a lobby before a security desk with a map of Remnant in the background. The initials "A.M.G" were scrawled in the lower left-hand corner.

But none of that mattered to Alyce. What she instead focused on, was the writing above the map. Four words; the name of a location.

"Black Mesa Research Facility"

* * *

 **Edited on 9/24/18  
Changes:  
**-Added a little more detail on the robot's armor.  
-Made a few changes when the medic was explaining Chell's injury.


	10. Ch9 Docks Attack

**(A/N):** No reviews I feel the need to respond to at this time.

This chapter's title is brought to you by Yang.

Before we start, you may notice I have made a new cover. This was just something I threw together in about half an hour. It's simple, but good enough in my opinion.

In other news, I decided to try to put music back in. Probably the biggest reason why I didn't want to was that I just know of so many good songs that choosing the right one seems impossible sometimes, but I will do my best.

Also, I should probably say that this chapter goes after the RWBY episode _The Stray_ and during _Black and White_ (the episodes where we meet Penny and Blake is revealed to be a Faunus). I didn't feel like I would accomplish much by retreading what was already done, so I just skipped to right before where I changed stuff. Enjoy.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Alyce looked over the past she could barely remember, Blake was dealing with a past she wished she could forget.

She pushed herself up and shook off the explosion that forced her down before looking back to where it occurred, only to see a trio of Dust powered projectiles hurtling towards her. Blake rolled to the side as explosions shook the ground behind her. She leapt to her feet and shot a death glare at a certain crime lord in a bowler hat before running behind a nearby shipping container.

Roman slowly walked forward. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..." his taunt was interrupted by a banana peel landing on his head. He looked up at where it fell from, only to have Sun fall on top of him and leave shoe marks on his face.

"Leave her alone!" Sun shouted, before moving his hands to his face to block the wind the bullhead above him kicked up as he backed towards Blake.

The bullhead lowered, its door sliding open, and a dark skinned man jumped out.

He wore _very_ light purple clothing, the design of which seemed evocative of an exterminator, or maybe janitor. On his right arm, near the shoulder, the White Fang emblem was displayed proudly. Elbow pads and thick, black rubber gloves were also visible. A variety of equipment was strapped to his belt and the name "Zeddemauve" was written in red-on-black lettering above where his heart was. Despite being a member of the White Fang, he wore no mask and his faunus features were not readily apparent. That was odd, but really drew attention was the square metal backpack he was wearing.

The majority was gunmetal gray with two silver cylinders, looking similar to what pressurized gases are stored in, mounted on the back. In between the canisters the body was pushed outwards to about halfway up before sloping back in at an angle. On the angled part was a gauge of some kind; below that, a series of red and green lights. The hose running from the side to the man's hand instantly made Blake and Sun instantly think flamethrower, but the hose itself looked... off.

The thickness looked more similar to something a firefighter would use. Instead of the nozzle tapering off, it was instead thicker than the hose itself by about half, and slotted, resembling a muzzle brake. On the left side was a handle, with another on top, perpendicular to the one on the side. A small display screen was mounted on the right.

Roman walked to the bullhead while twirling his cane. "Ah, Winston! About time you got here. Be a dear and kill those hunters for me, would ya?" At this the crime lord boarded the VTOL aircraft and waved goodbye mockingly while Winston reached behind himself and flipped a switch on his pack. The sound of machinery starting up filled the air, but was barely audible over the bullhead engines.

Blake narrowed her eyes and made a beeline for the bullhead. Like hell she was going to let him get away. Unfortunately, the White Fang member she now knew as Winston had other plans. He leveled the nozzle of whatever was on his back at Blake and braced himself, left foot forward and right foot back. Blake didn't know what was coming, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

 ** **[Insert song;** _ **Portal 2: Songs to Test By**_ **;** _ **An Accent Beyond**_ **]****

She triggered her shadow clone, having it hurl her to the side just before a vortex of pale blue, spiraling energy beams passed by, dissipating her duplicate instantly and leaving a large, molten hole in the shipping container some distance behind her. Sun avoided any damage because of the simple fact Winston wasn't aiming at him.

There was no way either of them could stand up to that kind of firepower for long, even with their auras mostly full, so it was time for a different approach. Said approach involved Blake peppering Winston with shots from Gambol Shroud whilst she and Sun ran for cover to the right, so they did just that. But as Blake broke line of sight, she couldn't help but feel she was forgetting something.

"There she is! Open fire!"

Oh, right. The goons Torchwick was ordering about earlier. Oops. With barely any time to react, Blake inserted a cartridge of earth dust and used it to create a statue of herself for cover. It couldn't last for long, so she thought about what to do next and looked for Sun. However, he had taken a slightly different route.

"Excuse me," a voice from behind the two goons said, causing the two to look behind themselves. They barely had time to process the image of Sun smiling before he swept their feet out from under them with his bo staff and, before they even hit the ground, slapped both their faces with a single move, causing unconsciousness instantly.

Sun grinned madly at Blake, but his smile fell when he saw Winston rounding the corner. He took aim and-

 **[End song]**

 _ **-Kaboom-**_

 **[Insert song; _Aldnoah. Zero_** _ **OST**_ **;** _ **SiTE-n0w1**_ **]**

A large explosion occurred at his feet, sending him flying backwards. Blake and Sun looked to where the shot came from, and saw a familiar form in a red cape. Ruby yanked back on Crescent Rose's bolt, chambering another explosive round, and shot it straight at her feet, launching herself to right beside her friend.

"You two okay?" Ruby asked as she shifted her weapon to scythe form. Blake and sun nodded.

And then someone else dropped in from the same direction as Ruby came. This new arrival had whitish-gray clothing and orange hair. _Wait a minute,_ Blake thought. _Isn't that the girl Weiss ran into near the docks? What was her name? Nickel something?_

"Penny!" Ruby shouted. _Close enough._ "Stay back! Please!"

Instead of doing what was asked of her, Penny took a few steps towards Winston, who had managed to pull himself off the ground and into a kneeling position. "Any friend of Ruby is a friend of mine," Penny declared seriously. "And you will not hurt my friends."

"Yeah? And what are you going to do about it?" Winston said threateningly as he finished standing up.

Penny responded by narrowing her eyes and unfolding her swords, mentally ordering them into a configuration that resembled a pair of wings. Winston's eyes widened in surprise. "Ah…" He stood there for a moment as he processed this new threat.

 **[Skip song to 1:28]**

He didn't have much time to do this however, as Penny arranged her blades into a formation resembling a buzzsaw and sent them spinning at him, just barely giving Winston enough time to dive out of the way.

The blades continued to spin past him until they hit a shipping container, tearing a massive gash in the metal before returning to Penny.

Winston recovered from his close shave and looked back at the hole, which showed the storage unit to be currently empty. He then returned fire, slowly sweeping the beam across the area where the four hunters stood. Ruby used her semblance to dash behind a building, Blake and Sun simply dived to the ground to let the beam pass over them, but Penny took a different approach by arranging her swords in a circle in front of herself, creating a makeshift shield.

Unfortunately this turned out to be a horrible idea. The stream didn't manage to get through to Penny, but by the time it moved past her, every single blade the energy made contact with was melted in an indistinguishable lump of metal. This didn't leave Penny completely helpless, but still, six of her ten weapons were incapable of even hovering on their own power, forcing her to pull them in using just her internal winch.

By the time Winston realized the disadvantage this put her at, he couldn't take advantage due to his weapon's substantial recoil when fired for more than a few seconds. As he recovered from this drawback to massive firepower, Penny saw an opportunity.

"NOW!" She cried whilst swapping her remaining blades into ranged mode and began to charge a blast. Blake leapt to her feet and Ruby leaned out of cover. Both girls had weapons in hand.

Winston's face drained of color staring down the firing squad. Behind them, Sun was introducing the remaining two goons (who had the "genius" idea of trying to sneak up behind them) to Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang with two quick, point blank shotgun blasts.

Back to Winston, who muttered the two words that just popped into his mind. "Oh, shit." It was at this point that everyone present learned a fun fact; when sufficiently motivated by, for example, an imminent storm of bullets, someone can run to safety at top speed even when wearing a giant metal backpack and with various projectiles pinging against his aura.

 **[End song]**

As Winston moved around to the other side of the container, Ruby narrowed her eyes and motioned for her friends to come closer.

"Alright, we've got him. He's between two boxes and we have a line of sight to the only ways out. Penny, Sun, you take right side, Blake and I will take right."

"A pincer movement," Sun said. "Smart."

"Thanks!"

 **[Song switch; _Aldnoah. Zero_** _ **OST; MKAlieZ**_ **(Start at 2:13)]**

The group moved to their positions, but then Winston decided to make his move. The first to notice was Blake, who saw that the metal in one particular spot seemed to be glowing intensely. "Get down!" she screamed.

Everyone did so except Sun, who was closest to the anomaly. He didn't even have time to react as the blue energy finished punching through the inch worth of steel and hit him right in the gut. Sun fell to the ground clutching his stomach in pain and Winston continued shooting through the shipping container, leaving a trail of molten metal in the beam's wake.

Winston couldn't see exactly where the hunters were, so he had no idea if he was actually hitting them, as opposed to before where he just wasn't used to the recoil. He cut off the beam as soon as it reached the edge of the crate, the top of which slid off along the diagonal incision.

Against her better judgment, Blake got up and started to run to Sun's side. Ruby tried to grab her, but Blake was out of reach before Ruby could react. Winston leveled his gun, but was forced to step to the side in order to avoid two of Penny's blades.

They embedded themselves into the metal container behind him, one level with his ribcage and one next to his knees. Penny launched another pair at the same height, which Winston also dodged by moving back towards the first two. In doing so however, he ran into the trap Penny was setting up.

Winston had assumed Penny's blades were remote controlled, so running into the taut wire came as a bit of a surprise. It also left him completely vulnerable as there wasn't enough room to maneuver even slightly.

 **[Skip song (or go back) to 2:48]**

Penny deployed her final four swords from her backpack. These ones she arranged in ninety degree angles to each other, forming a plus shape when looked at from the front. The blades began to spin like a drill, then launched themselves at the terrorist. With hardly a moment to respond, Winston dropped the hose and crossed his arms in front of himself to shield against the incoming Phillips-head wannabe. In hindsight, he could have possibly shot them down, but he didn't have enough time to think of that.

The blades slammed into Winston, sparks flying as they clashed against his aura. Meanwhile, Blake was kneeling over Sun, who let out a moan.

 **[Reduce song volume]**

"Are you alright?" Blake asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," Sun huffed as he pulled himself to his feet. "Aura took the worst of it, but I don't want to see if it can hold up to much more." He noticed Blake staring at his stomach and looked down to see what was wrong. As it turned out, his aura did protect him, but the sheer amount of heat generated had left a fairly large welt. If Sun had guess, he would say it was only a first degree burn. "Eh, it'll heal. We have bigger things to worry about."

At this he turned Winston, who had been forced to his knees under Penny's relentless assault. If one were to get close, they would see him panting and sweating as his aura was depleted. Eventually his body just couldn't take the stress anymore, and Winston collapsed.

 **[End song]**

"Huh. Never mind."

Penny retracted her blades and turned to Ruby. "So… is that what you would call anticlimactic?"

"Yeah…" Ruby said slowly.

The four made their way over to the downed Winston. Once the group had assembled over their fallen opponent, Blake gestured to the large energy weapon strapped to his back.

"So… do you have any idea exactly what this thing is?" This question was mainly directed at Ruby because of her love with all things weapon-related.

Ruby picked up the nozzle to examine it, although she had to kneel because of the relatively short length of the hose. "Nothing you don't know. Believe me, I would have remembered if something like this popped up in Weapons Magazine."

Sun threw his two cents in. "Maybe the White Fang made it?"

Blake shook her head. "Doubtful. They didn't have any kind of R&D when I left."

As Sun thought about this, he noticed someone was strangely quiet. "Penny, was it?"

Penny jumped out of her deep thinking in surprise. "Yes?"

"You look like you have something to say."

"No, it's nothing." Penny hiccupped and put her hand to her mouth.

In reality, she was trying to recall an event that occurred where she was made. It involved man arguing that he was almost finished with his "Gluon Gun" and just needed a bit more funding. That was all she could manage to make out due to her being in the waiting room and _not_ the administrator's office, where it was being discussed.

Back in the present, Ruby was taking a closer look at the display mounted on the nozzle. There were a series of gauges in bar forms displayed; the first one was about half full and was labeled "X. Dust," the second was almost completely full and was called "Output", but the third made Ruby's eyes widen.

"Umm… Guys?" she called.

"What is it?" Blake responded.

"There's an Aura Meter here..."

Sun put his hand to his chin. "Well that makes sense. It's a good spot to have something like that."

"Yeah, well… It says he still has roughly forty percent left."

"Wait, what?"

"I know, he should still-" Ruby was cut off when she felt something latch onto her ankle. She looked down to see Winston glaring at her with pure rage prior to throwing her right at her friends. The group was knocked over, somehow making a bowling pin sound as they collided with each other.

Winston grabbed the hose and stood up, muttering all the way. "Couldn't turn your backs, huh? No, you just _had_ to come make sure I was really down."

 **[Insert song;** _ **Portal 2: Songs to Test By; The Part Where He Kills You**_ (start at 1:13) **]**

Winston started firing at the hunters' feet and slowly moved the stream vertically, leaving a melting trail along the ground. The group of four split down the middle into two groups of two, with Ruby and Sun diving left and the others dodging right. Despite the beam missing by several inches, burnt fabric and hair could be smelled. Good thing Yang wasn't there.

"Man, even with that beating, he's not even in the red!" Sun exclaimed whilst running, referring to what Yang would probably call "Penny playing Drill Sergeant."

"We aren't going to able to beat him conventionally, that's for sure," Ruby said. "That pack of his will tear us up the moment we peek our heads out." The two paused for a moment to catch their breath, confident they lost the extremist.

"He can only face one direction, right? If we surround him then-"

"No." Ruby interrupted. "It's too risky. Just a brief brush was enough to hurt you."

"Come on. It's not _that_ bad."

"Still. I don't want any of you getting hurt if I can help it."

"Do you have a better plan?"

Ruby's eyes darted around trying to find something- anything- that would help. Her gaze eventually landed on one particular object. "I might. Right now I can't tell if it's the smartest thing I've ever done, or the dumbest. But if I do it right, none of us will get hurt anymore. This way!"

Ruby took off using her semblance. After a moment of surprise Sun followed using the rose petals left behind. He soon caught up with her just standing in possibly the largest open space on the dock.

Ruby noticed Sun coming closer and held out her hand. "Stay right there, I got this. I hope." That last part was said under her breath. And then she did what Sun would have to agree was the stupidest thing ever.

She cupped her hands to her face and called out "BLAKE! PENNY! WHERE ARE YOU?" as loud as she could.

Sun's mouth opened wide. He didn't know what to expect, but Ruby broadcasting their exact location was definitely not it. _"Are you crazy?"_ he hissed in a cross between a whisper and a shout.

"Maybe."

* * *

Winston was getting frustrated. Not necessarily angry, but definitely annoyed. These twerps were fast and hit hard. That one with the flying swords managed to take out a large chunk of his much stronger than average aura by herself. Granted he could have done something other than stand there and take it, but come on, it's not like he had much time to react.

As he wandered the labyrinth of boxes looking for his prey, he heard the red one call out for her friends. It took him a second to figure out what to do. On one hand it was clearly suspicious; no one would be _that_ stupid. On the other, since he knew it was probably a trap, he could probably turn the tables.

After a few moments of mental deliberation, Winston decided it was worth the risk. He headed to where the sound came from.

* * *

Winston entered the clearing and came face to face with Ruby. "Where's your friends?" he spat out, glancing around.

Ruby didn't say anything, but that just made Winston angry.

"Look, I know they're sneaking up behind me, I'm not an idiot. So why don't we just get this over with."

Instead of responding, Ruby twirled Crescent Rose behind her before aiming it back at Winston in rifle form. Winston did the same with his weapon but then did a 180 followed by a horizontal beam sweep, expecting someone to be there. There wasn't.

Turning back to Ruby, Winston said "Really? Just you? Well, I admire your bravery, but don't think that means I'm gonna go easy on you."

Sun looked out from behind his cover. He was positioned so he had a clear view of Ruby but the container he was behind blocked Winston from sight. The sound of footfalls brought his attention behind him to see Blake and Penny running up.

"I heard Ruby call out. Is she out of her mind?" Blake said in a panicked voice.

"I don't know! She said she had a plan!" Sun responded in the same tone.

"I do hope she does. It would be awful to lose a friend I just met!" Blake and Sun glanced at Penny, noticing how her chipper tone didn't exactly match up with what she was saying.

Ruby took a shot at Winston, only for it to go over his shoulder. She walked backwards whilst firing a second, and then a third shot. Both missed.

Winston chuckled. "For a sniper, you sure are bad at this." He stepped forward in time with Ruby, keeping the distance between them the same.

But Ruby wasn't worried. In fact, that's exactly what she was hoping for. She flashed a smile and fired one more time, but not at Winston. Instead, ruby had aimed her round high above him.

When Winston saw Ruby aim her rifle up, he was confused. But the shrieking sound of metal breaking drew his attention to directly over his head. He dropped both his jaw and the nozzle as he saw the massive shadow above him. Winston tried to dive forward to get out of the way, but only half of him made it to safety. Specifically, his upper half.

 **[End song]**

The shipping container that was recently held by a crane slammed down, creating a cloud of dust and a loud noise that almost drowned out Winston's scream of pain as his legs got crushed.

Ruby gestured to her friends who stepped out with their hiding spot, weapons aimed in Winston's general direction just in case. When the dust cleared they saw Winston reaching for his hose, but not quite reaching it before dropping his shaky hand from exhaustion.

The group stood looking over their trapped opponent who was just barely clinging to consciousness. The first to speak was Ruby.

"Well… I guess that's it," she said, lowering Crescent Rose.

"Indeed," Penny replied.

"Are you guys alright?" Ruby directed at Blake and Sun, but without her eyes leaving Winston. There was no response. "Guys?" Still with no response, she turned around to see what was wrong. What she saw shocked her.

 **[Insert song;** _ **Portal 2: Songs to Test By**_ **;** _ **Ghost of Rattman**_ **]**

Sun was swayed on his feet, almost looking as if he had _way_ too much to drink, which would have been funny were it not for Blake laying on the ground next to him. After a few moments Sun fell also.

"GUYS!" Ruby cried out, before dashing in their direction. However, she only made it a few steps and was about to trigger her semblance when a sharp pain hit her in the neck. Ruby suddenly felt very drowsy as she moved her hand to the location in question and felt a foreign object stuck in her skin. She yanked in out and took a look at it.

A long, slender dart with red fletching rested in Ruby's hand. Before she even had time to take this simple fact in, the world seemed to blur.

By this time Penny turned around to see what was wrong, and was just in time to see Ruby collapse as well. "Ruby!" she cried, rushing to her friend.

Ruby was still conscious somewhat, though only able to move her eyes. She looked at Penny kneeling over her, then at the pale-skinned man in a blue suit stepping out of the shadows behind her. In his hands rested a composite crossbow. Oddly enough, it had a clip with more darts poking out loaded into the bottom and was equipped with a scope. The man pressed a button near the trigger, causing the stock to collapse in on itself and the limbs to fold flush with the body.

Ruby desperately wanted to warn Penny, to tell her to turn around, but all her mouth would let out was a moan.

"What is it Ruby?" Penny asked completely oblivious to the threat behind her. Ruby tried harder, but only succeeded in a slightly louder sound.

By this time it was too late and the suited person was right behind her. He grabbed Penny's arm and spun her around forcefully, allowing her to get a look at him. "You…" she said in a startled voice before the unknown person yanked her in close and whispered something in her ear. Ruby had no idea what he said, but whatever it was, Penny fainted instantly. The man caught her and lowered her to the ground gently before straightening his tie. The last thing Ruby saw before blacking out was the unknown individual making his way over to the downed Winston.

* * *

Zeddemauve couldn't exactly see what happened due to his position. So when he heard something happen to those brats and footsteps approaching, he immediately assumed the best. "Hey, man, help me out here, would ya?" he said slowly.

"I'mm afraid that won't be posssible."

"What?" Winston use the last of his strength to turn his head to get an actual look at who he believed to be his rescuer. "Wait… you ain't White Fang."

"Your _ability_ to state the _obvious_ iss… overwhelming."

"So why are you here, huh?" Winston let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a cough and a chuckle. "You here to finish me off?

"No…" the man scratched his chin. "I ssupose you could conssider me a… _Repo Man_ of sorts. In _this_ instance, at least."

"Eh…?"

"You have ssomething that _belongs_ to myy… _employer._ "

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

" _Ohhh?_ " The suit said, and raised his finger. "Then I asssume that Gluon Gun on your back belongs to _you_?"

Realization hit Winston. "You're from-"

"Quite so. And for what it's worth, I do _apologize..._ "

Winston was about to ask what he meant, but before he could, his question was answered in the form of a dart being jammed into his skin and the man continuing. "But I can't risk you sstrugling and damaging such a… _valuable_ piece of hardware." At this he stood up and waited for the fast-acting tranquilizer to take effect.

"Then again, you're probably _not_ in a... possision to do so, _buut_ you can nevver be too careful in _my_ line of work."

Winston was only able to stay awake just long enough to hear the man finish talking, eyes closing as soon as the last word was spoken. As soon as the unknown person confirmed Winston was no longer moving, he carefully removed the energy weapon from the extremist's back and onto his own, carrying it like it weighed nothing, before making his exit.

 **[End song]**

* * *

"-uby… Ruby!" Ruby slowly woke from her slumber to see Yang kneeling over her. Ruby groaned and slowly pulled herself up, only to be crushed by a bear hug.

"Oh thank Oum you're alright!" Yang cried.

"Can't… breathe…" Ruby choked out.

Yang released her death grip and backed up. "Sorry… I was just worried…"

"It's okay." Ruby managed to stabilize her breathing. "How did you find us?"

"Simple." Ruby turned to see Weiss helping Blake and Sun to their feet. "We just followed the explosions."

"Oh. That makes sense." And then Ruby realized who she was talking to. "Wait, Weiss! About Blake, you see…"

"Ah-bah-bah-bah-bah." Weiss held up her hand and turned to Blake. "Look, we've been looking for you for _twelve hours_ , so I've had time to think. And you know what? I don't care!"

Blake was somewhat surprised by this admission. "You don't?"

"No. You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Blake nodded. "Right. So next time something like this comes up, just come to your team. Please." Blake nodded again. "Good."

Yang decided to say something to Blake. "Hey, you remember what we were talking about last night?"

"What about it?" Blake asked.

"I'm just surprised you were the one to say Chell was hiding something."

Blake didn't exactly know where she was going with this. "Well I was just saying what you were all thinking."

"Yeah, I'm just saying, it seems like a case of the pot calling the kettle Blake."

". . . That would probably work better if she was the one accusing _me_ of hiding something."

"Meh. So anyway, what exactly happened here?"

"Well…" Ruby began, and then started to explain everything.

When she got to the part where Winston showed up, Yang asked "So he had a laser too? Like Chell's?"

"No, Chell's probably uses Burn Dust in some way, he used…" Ruby thought back to when she looked at the display. What the heck was X Dust? Did the X stand for something? If so, what? "Some other kind. Whatever it was, it was a lot more powerful and didn't seem to overheat." Ruby then continued up to when they dropped the shipping container on his legs. "And then some weirdo in a suit showed up and drugged all of us with a crossbow. Except for Penny, though. He just whispered something in her ear and she fainted."

"Wait." Weiss interrupted. "Penny? She was here too?"

Ruby made a noise indicating yes, then realized something and looked around. "Wait. Where is she?"

"She wasn't here when we found you…" Yang said.

"So… what happened to her?" Blake was the first to ask the question everyone was thinking.

* * *

Meanwhile, around the corner, a man was leaning over an unconscious girl in the back seat of a black car.

"And that should do it," he muttered to himself before stepping out.

Penny's eyes snapped open. "Sal-u-tations! Wait…" she trailed off as her memories were reorganized.

The man closed the door and entered the driver's seat before starting the car. "Penny…" he started while looking at her through the rear view mirror. "You should know better than to go running around in a strange city."

"I know…" Penny looked away in shame. "But you didn't have to send _him_ after me."

"I didn't."

"Huh?"

"I asked the administrator. Apparently, _he_ had a different mission that just happened to take place here. I only got the call to come pick you up shortly before arriving here"

"Really?" Penny didn't seem convinced.

The driver sighed. "Look at it this way; if he was sent to get you, why would he just use the override code and leave you there instead of taking you himself?"

When he put it that way, Penny had no choice but to accept his logic. "So now what?" She asked with a sigh.

"For now, we're headed back to Black Mesa. Between your father, Dr. Breen, and Ironwood, we have _a lot_ of explaining to do."

* * *

 **(A/N):** You may notice some of the dialog in this chapter was lifted straight from the episode _Black and White_. This just seemed to most natural way to write it, and I did do what I could to shorten it somewhat.

I'm not entirely happy with using _An Accent Beyond_ , but I was having a hard time choosing the perfect song for that part. I didn't want the chapter to be held up any longer though, so I just picked one randomly from my list of options.

When it came to describing the Gluon Gun, I was torn between the original or Black Mesa versions. Eventually I decided on the original, mostly because it was simpler looking. I was also tempted to use the Black Mesa crossbow, just because the darts are so cool looking, but I decided not to for consistency's sake. The Gluon Gun also received a huge buff from how it appeared in game. This is because a weapon that uses all its ammo up in roughly ten seconds just wouldn't have worked as well. If you would like a more technical explanation, then... umm...

Dust Uranium? Yeah, let's go with that.

For those of you wondering about the override code, that's just something I made up. On average, it seems Black Mesa has a greater emphasis on safety than Aperture (then again, there's that giant fan blade in Blast Pit… and the entirety of Residue Processing… meh, still better than Aperture), so it makes sense they would have an easy way to stop a rampant A.I. (or android) in case of emergency.

 **Revision complete on 4/2/18  
Changes: **Rearranged the song listing slightly.


	11. Ch10 A Friendly Chat Part 1 of 3

**Reveiws:**

 **Delta prime2** (regarding Ch. 9) **:** _...the name Zeddemauve escapes me. Is it his last name by any chance?...we also get to see the G-man again, that was a nice touch. Can't help but wonder now if Ozpin or Qrow have ever run into him…_

Yes, his full name is "Winston Zeddemauve." And no, G-man hasn't interacted with either of them… yet.

Also a huge thank you to **soberan 123** for his PM correspondence. He/she has been a big help in giving me ideas and making sure I don't directly contradict canon _too_ badly.

 **(A/N):** So, I was going to make this the obligatory food fight chapter that all RWBY crossovers seem to have, but it just didn't work out. So I replaced it with what ended up being part 2 of this chapter.

If you're wondering why I split it up like this; good question! It's just something I thought of to avoid constantly pointing out what happened when. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? I mean, it's not like a pack of wild Grimm are about to show up at my door.

 _ ***DING-DONG***_

I wonder who that could be… excuse me for a moment.

* * *

Ozpin sat in his office with Glynda while they waited for the man they knew would soon arrive, based on the fleet outside the window. After a while, General Ironwood walked in and Glynda took her leave. After a brief conversation, James made his leave, but not before saying one last remark.

"But ask yourself this: Do you honestly believe your children could win a war?"

The headmaster looked down at his desk. "I hope they never have to," he muttered, before raising his head back up. "There is one last thing I wish to discuss."

The general stopped in front of the elevator. "And what's that?" he asked without turning around.

"It's about Black Mesa."

James straightened in shock before relaxing. "You need to be careful when saying things like that, Oz." he said with a sigh before slowly turning around. "You're not technically allowed to know about them."

"I am well aware of that fact, and rest assured, I would never bring them up under most circumstances."

Ironwood approached the desk once more. "So… what's so important that we need to talk about it?"

The headmaster got straight to the point. "They are after one of my first years, and have sent multiple androids to apprehend her."

James' jaw dropped. "...What?" Ozpin took a sip of his drink and waited for Ironwood to recompose himself, which he did. "That's… preposterous."

"Yes… unfortunately, that doesn't make it any less true."

"Oz… you realize you're accusing Atlas' biggest military contractor of attempted kidnapping. I hope you have some kind of proof."

"Would wreckage of one of the robots that attacked her, on campus, I might add, be enough?"

James put his hand to his chin and thought for a moment. "It would be a start. But from my understanding, all Black Mesa androids are equipped with self-destruct devices."

"Well, yes, it did blow up, but we have enough left over to prove it was here."

"Obviously, but my point being that, unless there's a minor defect in the explosive, roughly ninety percent of all links to where it was built are destroyed, and only the designers can identify the rest." The general paused for a moment as something came to mind. "Well, that's not entirely true, but you would have to be someone who knows quite a lot about how Black Mesa builds their tech."

Ozpin made a small gesture towards Ironwood. "Like you?"

"No, I know a lot, but you'd need practically a lifetime of studying to pick up on the subtle recurring patterns they use. And even if we _could_ find somebody..."

After a few moments of awkward silence, the headmaster realized James wasn't going to finish his thought by himself. "Yes..?"

"I just remembered. About a month ago, a train from Black Mesa was hijacked, and all tracking devices onboard were either jammed or destroyed. We believe it to be the doing of the White Fang."

"And how does this have to do with my student being pursued?"

"The train was carrying many prototype technologies, including several squads of androids which were to be the basis of the new AK models."

Ozpin hummed in understanding as he took a small sip from his mug. "So you believe it's the White Fang?"

"That explanation is much more probable than a _highly_ secretive organization going behind Atlas' back and risking exposure."

Ozpin leaned back in his chair. "Perhaps…" he said slowly.

"So you're not convinced yet. Alright; then what would Black Mesa want one huntress-in-training for?"

"I could ask you the same about the White Fang."

"Most likely she abandoned them and they want payback."

"I doubt it, she's not a Faunus." Ozpin grinned inwardly. _Not this one, at least_.

"Then maybe she crossed them somehow! I don't know what goes on in their minds!" James cursed inwardly. How could this old fool not see what was right in front of him?

Ozpin, on the other hand, kept his cool. "Maybe, but I don't think so."

Ironwood huffed in frustration. "Then answer my question! Why would Breen go out of his way to get one person?"

Ozpin filed the unfamiliar name the general let slip away for later and took a long sip before responding. "It's not just one person. But to answer your question, I believe it has something to do with where she came from."

"And where's that?"

"Aperture."

"Ap-" For the second time in one conversation, James was momentarily at a loss. "Ozpin… Aperture was destroyed when one of their experiments backfired," he said slowly.

"Not to sound rude, but how can you be sure of that?" the headmaster asked diplomatically.

Ironwood took a deep breath to calm himself and subconsciously looked around the room. "What I'm about to say doesn't leave this room, understood?"

"If it's that important, then yes, I understand."

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to bring in a chair. This is going to take a while."

* * *

 **Author's note:** And I'm back. Sorry about that; had to fend off a wild salesman with nothing but a rolled up newspaper.

...What. You were expecting Grimm? Don't be ridiculous.

Anyway, onto the next part.


	12. Ch10 A Friendly Chat Part 2 of 3

**[Insert song; _Metal Slug 2/X/3/4 OST_ ; _The Military System_ ]**

Captain Ironwood stared out onto the sea of treetops zipping by. Inside the Bullhead, his squadmates, consisting of two medics, two engineers, and one standard soldier, same as Ironwood, chatted amongst themselves, mostly concerning why they were out here. They all wore the same white armor with blue highlights. The medics had armbands with a red crosses marking them as such, the rest only told apart by the equipment carried.

The transport quickly quieted down when Sergeant Vermeil, the commanding officer for this particular mission, exited the cockpit. He was dressed in similar armor as everyone else, but with red bits instead of blue.

 **[End song]**

"Now I know you're all wondering what we're doing so far from home, so listen up, 'cause I'm only going over this once." Looking over the squad, Vermeil continued. "Two weeks ago, we lost all contact with an Atlesian research facility. As it is now clear this is no simple malfunction, we have been sent to assist."

Ludwig, one of the medics, spoke up. "Sir, if this is an Atlas facility, why are we currently in Vale airspace?"

"I'm afraid that's above your paygrade, soldier!"

"But if we're-" Vereid sent a death glare and the medic remembered who he was talking to. "Understood, sir!"

"Good. Anyone else?" The sergeant paused, resuming only when he was sure no one was going to speak up. "Right then. Our ETA is approximately one hour. Once we get down, first priority is to secure the area and ensure there is no Grimm activity and evaluate the situation. Once that's done, you'll split into two teams.

"Cooper, you'll lead Blanco and Ludwig as Team Alpha. Your job will be to locate any survivors and provide medical assistance." Cooper and the two medics nodded.

"Ironwood, you're Beta lead with Jackson and Conagher. Your job will be restoring communications." Vermeil's gaze drifted over the group. "Any questions?"

"Sir, no, sir!" the troops yelled in unison.

"Excellent! Now, I want you all to double-check your equipment. We have no idea what we're going into, so prepare for the worst." The sergeant stepped back into the cockpit and closed the door.

The Bullhead occupants got to work making sure armor was attached correctly, and rifles were fully loaded. The medics and engineers had slightly more to do, ensuring their respective kits were fully stocked.

Cooper looked up from his rifle. "So. Research facility. I bet you gearheads love that bit, don't you?"

"Oh, that's not fair!" Jackson retorted.

"Yeah!" Conagher backed up his partner. "Just because we're engineers doesn't mean we love _everything_ sciencey!"

"Sooo… you're _not_ interested?" Blanco asked.

The engineers looked away. "I never said that," Conagher muttered.

"HAH!" Cooper exclaimed.

"Oh, shove off."

Ludwig spoke up. "What I want to know is, why are they sending us to this place if we're not allowed to know much about it?"

"Yeah, we heard you the first time," said Jackson.

"I'm serious! If we're not allowed to know the specifics, then why are we being sent in the first place?"

"They were probably short on men," James speculated as he examined his magazines. "Regardless, chatting about it won't do any good. If we're not authorized to know, we're not authorized to know. That's just how the chain of command works." The captain slammed a mag into his rife and pulled the charging handle, chambering a round with a _*click*_.

"Well if that's the case, the chain of command can-"

Cooper stepped in before Ludwig said something he couldn't take back. "If you know what's good for you, do _not_ finish that sentence."

Conagher rolled his eyes. "How you got through Boot Camp is beyond me considering how often your mouth moves faster than your brain."

Ludwig tried to think of a retort, but deep down he knew Conagher was right.

 _*RUMBLE*_

The teams' was interrupted as a massive tremor shook the aircraft, knocking the occupants about.

"The hell was that?" exclaimed Blanco.

Cooper chuckled "Don't tell me you're afraid of a little turbulence, now."

Blanco shot back. "Turbulence, my ass! I know an explosion when I hear one!"

"Are you sure? I hear paranoia is the first sign of insanity."

"Screw you."

James tuned out his squadmates friendly insults and grabbed his helmet. If Blanco was right, and it was an explosion, then things just became that much tougher. _Hopefully we'll get some answers when we get there_ , James thought as he slid the helmet over his head.

* * *

"Sir, we're approaching the drop zone now," the pilot said to Vermeil, who in turn toggled the PA system.

"Get ready people.

Inside the cabin, the doors on both sides opened, allowing clear view of the engines rotating to vertical positions.

But what the occupants were not focused on something so trivial. No, what captured all of their attention was the massive bombed-out building beneath them. Everything above the first floor was completely demolished, and what was left wasn't looking much better.

"Ha!" Blanco cried. "See? I was right; explosion!" Everyone looked at him through their helmets' visors with wide eyes, and Blanco looked down at the scene of destruction. "I'm… I'm a bad person, aren't I?" All heads present nodded silently as the Bullhead descended.

The airship stopped roughly a foot above the ground, and the men jumped out, weapons at the ready. Once they were clear, the transport's engines rose in pitch as it took off in order to maintain an aerial view.

Vermeil's voice crackled through the squad's radios. "Alright people, I'm resending my previous orders. Our only priority is now search and rescue. Alpha, you circle around West. Beta, you're headed East. Also; Jackson, Ludwig, switch teams."

Everyone put their hands to their helmets, and said "Understood, sir," or some variation thereof.

"Alright then. Move out!

* * *

 **[Insert song;** _ **Portal Stories: Mel OST**_ **;** _ **Waking up to Science**_ **]**

Several minutes after Team Beta began to make their way around the building's remains, they still had yet to find anything important. Eventually the group came across a large fenced off area, similar in design to a parking lot. If James had to guess, he would say it was probably some form of landing zone, as Grimm would probably make quite a bit of trouble for land-based vehicles. The fence formed three parts of a rectangle, with the fourth made up of a surprisingly intact section of building, aside from all the entrances being caved in.

"Captain, I feel like we should take a look around in there," Ludwig requested.

"And why's that?" Ironwood responded, genuinely curious.

Ludwig pointed at the enclosure. "Some of the rubble in there looks out of place."

James thought about it. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt."

Conagher reached into his equipment pack and pulled out a pair of wire cutters. "Allow me." The engineer moved to the fence, but was stopped when Ironwood grabbed his shoulder. "What?"

Instead of answering, James just pointed to a particular part of the fence. Conagher followed his finger and saw a yellow sign in the shape of a triangle, with a lightning bolt printed in black. As he mentally chastised himself for being an idiot, James said the obvious. "Let's find a way around."

The group followed the fence around, moving towards a nearby tree line. But as they got further from the wreckage, a soft whir came from behind them.

" _Who's there?"_

The troopers were startled by the sudden voice, though quickly realized it was clearly human. It did sound heavily distorted, but what else could it be.

 **[Pause song]**

Ironwood raised his hands to show he wasn't a threat. "Are you a survivor?" he asked, slowly turning around. "We're from Atlas, we're here to…" At this point the captain had finished turning around and oddly enough, didn't see anything there. Well, aside from the large white oval standing on a circular metal plate. An oval that was currently deploying machine guns from its sides.

"Oh crap."

 **[Insert song; _Metal Slug 5 OST_** **; _Last Ditch Resistance_** **]**

James turned to run towards the woods and channeled his aura. However, a single bullet was fired before he could focus on shielding himself and, by sheer coincidence, hit one of his joints, where the armor was weaker. He grimaced and clutched his right elbow in pain but continued on in spite of it, armor and aura working in tandem to prevent any more damage.

Ludwig and Conagher were running as well, causing the turret's targeting system to cycle between the three, which made escaping a little easier. After what felt like an eternity, but what was in reality was only a few seconds, the group made it to the trees, taking cover behind some sufficiently wide trunks.

The squad saw the laser darting around on the trees father back, and faintly heard the turret say _"Could you come over here?"_

"NO!" Ludwig shouted back.

Ironwood removed his hand from his wound and reached for his waist, noticing the not insignificant amount of blood. It hurt like heck, but at least he was left handed. Removing a grenade from his belt, he whistled to his friends. They looked at him and, seeing the round device, nodded. He didn't do anything quite yet though, instead waiting for an opportune moment.

After a little while, he got one when the dancing dot stabilized itself. _"Nap time."_ James put the explosive to his mouth and yanked the pin out with his teeth, keeping a grip on the safety lever in order to avoid a premature detonation. He turned out of his cover and hurled the grenade with all his might, quickly ducking back after hearing a _"Hello."_

The turret lost its target again before even being able to fully deploy its guns. It then focused on the small object flying towards it, but it took only ten picoseconds for the internal Fire/No Fire Incident Resolution Chip to determine that it was far too small to be a valid target. The explosive landed and bounced once before rolling to a complete stop directly under the weapon platform's legs. All was still for just a moment before the Dust core within the grenade detonated.

 **[End song]**

The turret was thrown upwards with an electronic scream, bullets filling the air in a last ditch attempt to hit anything. Needless to say, this accomplished nothing, and the white oval fell to the green turf, glowing optic fading. _"I don't hate you."_ The metal plate on which it once stood lowered into the ground and was replaced with a patch of grass, seamlessly hiding the lift's existence.

Ironwood slumped downwards, once again clutching his arm. Ludwig ran over to his side, first aid kit at the ready. "Conagher, help me get this off him!" he shouted whilst removing the bracer on James' wounded arm.

The engineer joined the two and began unbuckling the captain's breastplate. Working together, they quickly managed to get all the armor off the upper body, which then allowed them to unzip the black undersuit and peel it down to the waist. Finally able to access the wound directly, Ludwig began cleaning it. James hissed when the antiseptic stung his raw skin.

"Oh, don't be such a baby," Ludwig said in a joking manner before wrapping the now disinfected gash with a roll of gauze. "Right, that should do it."

Ironwood stood back up and slid his arms back into his undersuit, zipped it up, then moved on to his armor.

As the captain suited up, Ludwig once again broke the silence. "I will say, you got pretty lucky there.

"Oh?" James said, securing the first strap on his breastplate. "How so?"

"That bullet only grazed you. Granted, it left behind a decent sized laceration, but at least it didn't hit anything vital." A brief pause. "Maybe you should just stop."

"Stop what?"

"Hating that arm so much. What did it ever do to you?"

James didn't honor him with a response.

The group approached the fallen turret, cautious of any more surprises. Ludwig picked the white object up and stared straight into its "eye." "So what is this thing supposed to be here for?"

The other two thought for a moment. "Grimm?" Conagher suggested. "We're a long way from any settlement, so it would make sense to have automated defenses."

"Yeah, but why would it attack us?" Ironwood countered.

"You're right; most defenses could tell that by a simple scan. But I have a few theories. First, one of us might secretly by a Grimm in human skin."

"Ha," Ludwig deadpanned.

"Other than that, it might be a malfunction. Even then, there should be a…" the engineer paused as he thought of something. "Check your IFF tags."

All present did so and nodded, confirming they were online. "Okay, so either it's not picking up our tags for whatever reason," Conagher looked at his team with a dead serious expression. "Or it's been reprogrammed."

"A bit of a stretch," James said. "But alright. Assuming you're right, who would have done that?"

Conagher's gaze moved to the ruined building. "Someone who doesn't want us getting in there." Ironwood rolled his eyes. He figured _that_ much out himself.

"Well if that's the case, why didn't we trigger it before?" Asked Ludwig.

"Maybe there was some kind of safe zone?" Ironwood speculated. "We never moved that far from the building."

Conagher rubbed his chin. "Definitely possible. It's not unheard of in setups like this. And I may be mistaken, but the guns didn't seem to move a full 360 degrees."

James once again took control of his squad. "Anyway, we should get back to the mission. You two try to get that gate open without shocking yourselves." He pointed to the section of fence opposite of the ruins "Be careful, there may be more defenses we don't know about. I'm going to call this in." The engineer and medic nodded and headed back to the fence. Ironwood put his hand to his ear.

"This is Team Beta calling Team Alpha. Come in Alpha."

" _This is Alpha; go ahead."_ Cooper's voice crackled through the radio.

"Cooper, keep your men close to the building. The automated defenses are still active, and they aren't just targeting Grimm. Over."

" _Copy that, thanks for the heads up. Anything else? Over."_

"Negative."

" _Alright then. We'll continue our sweep and discuss our findings when we meet up. Beta, out."_

 _ ***BANG***_

James whirled around to face the gunshot, but relaxed when he saw Ludwig lowering his smoking rife and Conagher kicking open the now unlocked gate, rubber soles providing insulation. Ironwood ran and caught up with them. Now regrouped, the three entered the enclosure.

 **[Resume song;** _ **Waking up to Science**_ (from 0:47) **]**

The first thing they noticed was the small shed next to the gate. A sign reading "Aperture" was mounted on it. On the asphalt further in were stripes of yellow paint, outlining landing zones for VTOL aircraft. Like the other areas of the building, wreckage littered the floor.

Conagher knelt down to examine some of the rubble. "You were right Ludwig. Some of this stuff _is_ different." The "stuff" being referred to was several unique pieces of debris. While most was what you would expect from a building, mainly concrete and rebar, these were smooth, round, white, and metal. A few had what looked to be electronics sticking out, though most were hollow and seemed more like simple plating of some form.

James looked at one of the larger bits, which had something written on it. "Either of you know what a 'GLaDOS' is?" His companions shook their heads.

Closer to the building, a glint of purple caught Ludwig's eye. He reached down and picked up a thin strip of metal in a sort of "J" shape, roughly the length of a human's lower leg. Lines of deep purple ran lengthwise across it, and the straight end looked like it was broken off something. A second one lay nearby, along with two white objects resembling clamps.

 **15 Minutes before the Bullhead landed**

 _"Thank you for assuming the party escort submission position."_

From behind a large pile of rubble, a man with disheveled hair watched helplessly as the woman in orange was dragged back into the building by a skeletal robot with a single, pink eye. After seemingly arguing with the box strapped to his back, he followed them.

Soon after, both the door and hallway collapsed, leaving little hope of anyone coming or going through that particular entrance.

 **Back in with the squad**

Ludwig dropped the metal piece and turned back to his buddies. Behind him, the strip clattered to the ground and let out a small pulse of energy, moving a small radius of dirt and such outwards. The effect was so miniscule that you would have to be looking right at it to notice.

"I don't think we're going to find anything else worthwhile here," James said. "Let's keep moving." The other two nodded, and the squad exited the landing zone to continue their sweep. After moving a short distance from the gate, another section of the grass lowered and was replaced with a familiar white shape. This time, the team was ready.

" _Hel-"_ _ ***BRAKA-BRAKA-BRAKA***_

The turret was violently shoved aside by the force of three automatic weapons firing at once. Beta lowered their guns and continued closer to the building as if nothing happened.

 **[End song]**

* * *

Team Alpha continued along their own half. They'd been lucky enough to not run into any of the nasty surprises Beta warned them about. However, they didn't find anything remotely helpful to the investigation either.

They were about at the midway point of the current wall when they spotted Beta coming around the corner. They sped their movement up, the other team doing the same. When the two got together, Ironwood was the first to speak.

"Find anything?"

"Nope," Cooper responded. "You?"

"Well there was this landing zone, but nothing useful."

"Alright. I'll call it in, then we should check inside." Cooper turned on his radio. "This is Team Alpha calling Sergeant Vermeil."

" _I read you loud and clear. Status?"_

"Sir, we've completed our sweep and have rendezvoused with Beta. Nothing to report."

" _Copy that. Stay where you are, we're coming to pick you up."_

Cooper was silent for a moment. "Sir, with all due respect, we haven't examined the interior yet."

" _Not my call. I sent my preliminary report to command and they've decided to send in a specialist team."_

"Copy that sir. Holding position."

Ludwig heard everything due to all the radios being set to the same channel. "Specialist team? Why didn't they just send that in first?" His question was met with shrugs. Moments later the sound of engines descended around them.

When the six military personal returned to Atlas, they were immediately sworn to secrecy. Any mention of where they went of what they were doing there would be tantamount to treason. Ironwood didn't get what the big deal was, but he readily agreed. After all, why would he want to tell anybody about a mission where absolutely nothing important happened?

* * *

 **(A/N):** Fun fact, when coming up with the first section of this part, I couldn't help but incorporate elements of the intro from _Opposing Force._ I assure you, this was unintentional at first but when I realized some of the similarities, I just decided to roll with it.

Now in my defense, Bullheads are basically just Ospreys but with jets, so you really can't help but draw parallels.

 **Edited on 9/25/18  
** **Changes:  
** -Changed out the song when Ironwood and co. encounter the turret. The new choice may be a bit... epic for such a low-level action scene, but I was really just looking for an excuse to put in a MS5 track.


	13. Ch10 A Friendly Chat Part 3 of 3

"It wasn't until I'd gotten myself promoted quite a few times that I could finally look through the records and find out what the big deal was," Ironwood said from his chair, finishing his story about the mission where absolutely nothing important happened.

Ozpin took a sip from his mug before voicing his thoughts. "You never did look inside the building, did you?"

The question was rhetorical but James answered anyway. "No, and a part of me's glad. The whole place looked like it could collapse at any moment."

"I see." Ozpin reached into his pocket and pulled out his personal scroll. "Do you know where Aperture was built?" he asked, while flicking through a series of files.

"South of Vale," James responded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. To be fair, it kind of was.

"Yes, but that's not what I meant." Ironwood tilted his head in curiosity and the headmaster found the picture he was looking for. "I did some digging through public records when she first came in. Here." He offered the scroll to the general, who took it.

The screen showed the front page of an old newspaper, dated roughly eighty ago, near the end of The Great War. James read the headline out loud. "'Local Entrepreneur Buys Dust Mine; Cave Johnson to Bring Science, Industry to Southern Vale.'" Ironwood paused for a second as he remembered where he heard that name before. "Like I said, southern Vale."

"That's not entirely true though, is it?"

"What are you talking about?" James asked in equal parts frustration and confusion. "It says here that Aperture was built on a Dust mine in-" Ironwood paused as his words caught up with him. "Oh."

"I see you understand. You only investigated the main entrance, but there was much more below the surface."

James looked down and clenched his fist. "If I ever find the idiot who thought to leave _that_ information out of the files…" he muttered. "Still," he said in his normal voice, "how can you be sure your student is involved with Aperture, seeing as there's been no communication from them since... whatever it was, happened? Heck, she probably wasn't even born by then."

Ozpin held his hand out, and Ironwood gave him his scroll back. The headmaster then pulled up the picture he had shown Glynda earlier, and passed it back to James. "These clothes were in her possession, though she wasn't wearing them. As for your second point, I will concede, but that doesn't mean there's no answer."

The general made a "humph" in thought and put the scroll on the desk. He could see where Oz was coming from, but it just didn't make sense. Besides, there were plenty of more reasonable explanations, but any further arguments on that point would be fruitless. "Well, regardless of the circumstances, this student is clearly in danger. I suppose I could divert a small group of Knights to protect her..."

Ozpin was baffled. "My student is currently being chased by squads of robots, and your solution to keep her safe is… _more_ robots?"

"You must understand, it would be in her best interests."

"And _you_ must understand that after what she's been through, she'll probably be going out of her way to avoid even automatic can openers."

A tense stare off followed, and James eventually relented. "... Fine. But I will have to insist on placing additional guards around the school, if only because of what you have downstairs." Ironwood stood up.

Ozpin let out a long sigh. "I suppose it's for the best, especially considering the others... But please at least promise me you won't go overboard. I don't want this place to look like a warzone."

Ironwood nearly left right then, but something about Oz's statement caught his attention. "...Others? What 'others?'"

* * *

 **(Later that night)**

Two people in large trench coats walked up to a small shack in the middle of nowhere, a large black bag held between them. Only their heads could be seen, everything else was covered in dark clothing. The one in front banged on the door and in response, a security camera popped out from a nearby hatch.

" _Finally,"_ a voice emanated from an unseen speaker. _"I had almost given up hope of you ever coming back. Did you at least get what I wanted?"_

The two hoisted the bag up and unzipped it, allowing the camera to get a good look inside. _"Just these? *sigh* Well, I suppose it will work for a day or two. Oh, who am I kidding? None of them last for more than an hour."_

The door opened and the shorter one in front zipped up the bag, but instead of helping, the taller one reached into his or her pockets and pulled out a back metal gauntlet, raising it up high, and swung.

 _ ***CLANG***_

The severed hand connected with the back of the shorter one's head, causing it to fly forward into a 90 degree angle compared to his or her body. The taller of the two slapped its knee and let out a high-pitched, electronic chortle.

The other one grumbled, grabbed its head with both hands, and pulled it to an upright position. It then shook its hand at the tall one and let out an incomprehensible string of noises.

" _Yes, yes; hilarious. Ha, ha, h- wait."_ The camera zoomed in on the severed hand. _"That design…"_ The camera focused onto the one holding the appendage. _"Where… did you find that,"_ the voice said menacingly.


	14. Still Alive

Hello.

Now, I know it's been a while, and I am truly sorry. I have many excuses, such as losing computer access for about a week (thanks a lot, hard drive), but mainly it comes down to me simply losing the will to write.

Now that does not mean, and I cannot state this enough, **THIS STORY IS NOT DEAD!** (only _very_ sleepy)

Unfortunately, I don't think there will be a proper chapter uploaded any time soon. I have recently gotten a job, which means even less time to work on this. Combined with the fact that I am easily distracted... I think you can see where I'm going with this. I do have an unrelated one shot in the works however, although I'm having trouble getting a certain character down properly, so you may not see that for a while, either.

I really can't apologize enough for this, I know firsthand what it feels like to have a story you enjoy go forever without an update, or even be abandoned entirely. To that end, I would like to reiterate a statement I made a few chapters ago:

 **This fic will not be abandoned without proper notification!  
This does not count as proper notification!**

On a different note, I do read every review that gets posted, even if I don't respond. If you do want an intimidate response, please indicate so within the review, or just PM me. Otherwise, I will post my response at the beginning of the next chapter, if I feel it's important and/or doing so won't spoil anything.

Also, I am _not_ sorry for my choice of name for this "chapter."


	15. Ch11 Making Science and a Scene

**(A/N):** Well, it's finally done… and I'm sorry about the wait. I could use many excuses, from going back to school to getting a corrupted drive, but if I'm honest, I mostly just lost interest.

In fact, don't be surprised if my next upload to this site is a totally unrelated one-shot. Also, I have enough ideas for a "RWBY:CS Chibi" segment (in fact, I already have one scene done), and that's probably going to be the next chapter.

For some more positive news, I went back and made some changes to the previous chapters (I knew they were a bit rough around the edges, but I didn't remember them being _that_ bad… unfortunately there wasn't much that could be done about Chapter one). I'm not going to list the edits here because there are quite a few, but the two things you need to know are that Ostium's portals now have a limited (but still large) range, and I've decided Chell shouldn't have a handgun (what was I thinking with that?). If you want to know more, I've added a changelog at the tail end of the affected chapters.

Finally, I've thought about adding in a series of "Data Files" containing non-essential information on certain weapons and technology, as I doubt I'd be able to fit most of it in without interrupting the story's flow. I suppose you could compare it to the World of Remnant videos, but I'm imagining something closer to the Codex entries from Mass Effect. Also worth noting is that anything I consider even _remotely_ spoilery will not be included.

Whether you like the idea or don't, I've set up a poll for it on my profile, so please vote on it.

 **Reviews:**

 **mega float guest** (regarding Ch. 10.2) **:** " _You're doing a great job in incorporating Portal to remnant…"_

Trust me, you haven't seen anything yet… heh, heheheh, muhahaha, MUHAHAHAHAHAHA… ha… ha…

Sorry, don't know what came over me there… heh…

* * *

Wallace Breen sighed as he flipped through the the pages. This was probably the worst part of his position; So. Much. Paperwork. The doctor placed the current stack back down on his desk and used his now free hands to massage his forehead.

" _Doctor Breen?"_ A female voice came over the speakers.

Breen reached over and pressed the button on his intercom. "Yes?"

" _General Ironwood is calling on a secure line. He says it's urgent."_

Breen sighed in relief. He needed a break, and this was just the excuse he was looking for. "Thank you Judith. I'll take it now."

" _Yes sir."_

Breen moved the paperwork to the side and activated the holo-screen. A live feed popped up, displaying Ironwood's face. "General! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

" _Good morning, doctor. Nice to see you again,"_ James responded over the line.

"It is good to see you, too. So, tell me, how have the new Knights been treating you?"

Ironwood cracked a friendly smile _"Very good. Much better than the 130s, at any rate."_ His face dropped after saying this. _"But I'm afraid we're going to have to drop the pleasantries. I'm calling on official business."_

Breen matched Ironwood's professional expresion. "Of course. What's this about?"

" _Do you remember the train that was hijacked a few months back?"_

Breen thought for a moment. "Which one; ours, or the SDC one down in Vale?"

" _Yours."_

"Ah," Breen leaned back. "Don't worry, It won't be a problem for much longer. As a matter of fact, I have a solid lead on exactly where they're being kept."

" _You do?"_ James relaxed in his seat. _"Well, that's a load off my back."_ A pause. _"I assume doing this subtly won't be an issue?"_

"General, _please_ ," Breen said with a smirk. "You of all people should know that I specialise in 'subtle.'"

" _Yes, of course,"_ James said. _"Just making sure we're both on the same page."_

"If I may ask, why are you calling my about this _now_?"

" _Yes, well…"_ Ironwood averted his eyes. _"I don't know why, but it seems the White Fang have taken an interest in Beacon Academy."_

Breen's mind screeched to a halt. "Meaning?" he choked out after a few moments.

James took a deep breath. _"I'm afraid that your androids are being used to carry out attacks on Beacon students."_

The administrator's eyes widened and his mind screeched to a halt. Under the table, he clenched his fist. "I- I see. Th- that is... troubling…"

" _Yes, quite. So far we can only confirm one variant being used, the..."_ James struggled for a moment to remember the name. _"...Infiltration-Model, I believe."_

Breen was panicking internally, but managed to only appear simply nervous on the outside. "Is- Is everyone alright." Of course, the administrator already knew the answer, but he had to keep up appearances.

" _The first student managed to fight one off, but two more were reported missing later that night."_

"Well, in that ca- WHAT!?"

" _I know. They've made their move, and who knows what they're planning next. If push comes to shove, we may see these robots used in larger scales."_ James paused for a moment _"Which brings me to the second reason I'm calling, I need to know if they have any kind of override, or a weakness we could exploit."_

"I… see…" Breen was still reeling from the information. "Let me speak to my robotics division… I'll… I'll call you back…" He pressed the button to hang up before the other party could respond.

Once the display disappeared, Breen clutched his head between his hands and slammed his elbows to the table in front of him, finally allowing the worry building up inside to show on his face.

After holding that pose for a while, he reached down and fumbled along the underside of his desk. He successfully felt the hidden switch after several attempts and pressed it.

" _Yess_?" Breen looked back up to see a familiar man in a blue suit standing there.

"I told you to keep me updated on the Aperture situation," said the administrator in an accusing tone.

"You did. And I have been."

"Really? Because I just had a chat with Ironwood, and he told me something _very_ interesting regarding the target."

" _Oh_? And what thatt be?"

"That the same day you sent the I-Model after her, two students were taken from the campus."'

The man in the suit did nothing more than raise an eyebrow at this statement.

" _Really_? Now isn't that… interessting."

Breen slowly brought his hands together and placed them on os desk. "Are you saying you had nothing to do with that?"

"Quite so."

"Well then who did?"

"I'm _afraid_ I have no clue."

"But…" Wallace let out a sigh. "We'll figure this out later. For now, we're going to have to roll back our attacks. Ironwood knows about them now, but fortunately he thinks they're the work of the White Fang." A pause. "Speaking of which, where is the cargo they stole?"

"Lasst I checkked, it wass being stored in an _abandoned_ warehousse."

"Good. I want it recovered within a week."

"As you _wissh._ But with alll due respect, wouldn't it be much ssimpler to... _allow_ them to keep our _asssets_? _That_ way, we would be able to keep _passsing_ the _blame_."

Breen slumped slightly "Yes, it would, but I already told the General we knew where they were. How would it look if we did nothing?"

"I see. In _that_ casse, it sshall be done."

Breen swiveled his chair around and took several deep breaths. But even in his highly anxious state, he couldn't help but wonder who else would want to target random school kids.

* * *

 **[Insert song;** _ **Portal OST; Self Esteem Fund**_ **]**

Clemantine was not having a good time. It started when she snuck out of her dorm to meet with her good friend and fellow second-year Reinette, in order to partake in activities that were... generally frowned upon in society… and Beacon Academy policies… and the law…

In any case, it was then that someone came up behind her, grabbed her, and held a sweet-smelling cloth to her face for a few seconds. The next thing Clemantine knew, she woke up as a prisoner in a small glass room with no visible exit, with a orange jumpsuit to boot (well, at least they got her color right). Speaking of boots, she was also wearing a strange - yet somehow familiar - pair of high-heels. This gave her quite a bit of trouble to begin with, but it was better than going barefoot.

Then a computerized, pre-recorded (presumably) voice came over the speakers and began talking about "Enrichment Centers" and "tests." At this time Clemantine was still a bit out of it, so she couldn't recall the specifics of what was said.

What she _could_ remember was some kind of hole opening in the wall, and on the other side was... herself… somehow. At that point her thoughts were thrust back to that late-comer's initiation, where the exact same tech was used. Clemantine immediately vowed to get some answers from that girl, but first things first; she had to get out of this place.

And so she passed through the first few chambers with ease. Her suspicions only increased (well, more like they were confirmed) upon acquiring an "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device" of her own, though unlike the one used in the initiation, this one could only shoot blue portals, and only on specific surfaces.

The whole time, prerecorded messages played over the PA system, most of which were insulting in some way or another. Whether or not this was intentional, Clemantine couldn't say for sure, but they _did_ seem fairly out of touch with reality, so…

Clemantine lost her train of thought as the small elevator slid to a stop and opened. As she climbed the stairs of what was previously referred to as a "chamberlock," making sure to glare at the camera she passed, a message started to play.

" _In order to maintain a safe testing environment for all participants, the Enrichment Center is required to inform you that the next test will involve hazardous chemicals. Please note that contact with these chemicals may result in unintended side effects. Common side effects include, but are not limited to; dizziness, drowsiness, nausea..."_

Clemantine rolled her eyes. "What is this, a drug commercial?" she grumpily muttered to herself, passing through the first of two doors.

" _...vomiting, dissolution, and/or death."_

"Wait, WHAT?!"

There was no reply, and the second circular door slid open to reveal the next test. Walking through it, she spent some time looking around before actually beginning. It was at this point she noticed three things;

The first thing she noticed was that the chamber was quite thin compared to the others, only seven feet across at a guess. However, both the length and height seemed to make up for it. At the opposite end was the exit, already open.

The second was the fact she was standing at an elevated position compared to the rest of the floor. The segment she was standing on and the one directly beneath the ledge were white, with almost all the rest of the room having black panelling. Also below her was what she had begun calling a "Portal Emitter," projecting an unconnected orange portal.

The third and final detail was the large pool of brown liquid spanning the length between the small strips of solid ground in front of each of the doors. In the middle of the pool was one of those angled panels, with the flat side pointed at the exit. Clemantine couldn't see that side, although she probably could if she were higher, but she was willing to bet it was the only other white surface in the room.

Clemantine was getting quite pissed. To be fair she had been drugged, kidnapped, and forced to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, all for the pleasure of some sick and twisted scientist (okay, so that part was just her speculating, but what other reason could there be?). And if that wasn't enough, now even the smallest mistake would cost her _life_!

And so, looking across the sea of toxins, she muttered two simple words.

"Screw it."

She faced the wall on her right and backed up to only a few inches away from the other. Bright orange energy appeared at her feet, spiraling upwards all along her new boots.

Clemantine psyched herself up by taking several deep breaths before running straight ahead. But when she hit the wall, instead of slamming into it as one might expect, her body rotated ninety degrees upwards, now facing the ceiling.

Following that, it was a simple matter for Clemantine to pivot to her left and make a bolt for the exit. As soon as she passed the last of the goo, she leapt off the wall. The energy around her legs dissipated and gravity instantly reasserted its hold over her.

Landing gracefully in front of the open door, Clemantine looked over her shoulder with a smirk before walking to the waiting elevator. Upon entering the tube, the doors closed automatically and the lift descended. However, it didn't get very far before it stopped and began moving sideways with a jerk, causing its occupant to lose her footing somewhat. Normally Clemantine would think of this as an odd thing for an elevator to do, but it had happened a few times in some of the previous lifts, so she had dismissed it as yet another quirk to this place.

The detour ended relatively shortly, and the lift ascended without delay. The door opened without much fanfare and Clemantine walked up and to the door of the next test. This new chamber was quite thin, and she stood on a slightly elevated position overlooking a large moat of… wait a minute...

" _Due to the detection of unauthorized semblance usage, the previous test chamber has been repeated. If you believe this repetition has been made in error, then congratulations; you now have the opportunity to recomplete this test._ _You're welcome._ _"_

Normally, Clemantine would have noted how different in tone that last line was from the rest of the "prerecorded" messages. For now though, she had only one thought.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

* * *

For a brief moment, Reinette could have sworn she heard something before dismissing it as her imagination, and returning to her important task of inspecting her nails for the tenth time in a row.

As opposed to Clemantine, who was actively trying to get out, Reinette had failed to even make it to the first elevator. Instead, she had spent the past several minutes sitting upon a Weighted Storage Cube, doing absolutely nothing.

" _Oh, by the way,"_ the woman said. By this point, she had given up all pretense of being nothing more than a set of prerecorded lines. _"I would like to congratulate you on having the second-lowest testing score of all time. All other sapients tested so far have had enough brain cells to make it through_ at least _the first three chambers. But you have somehow managed to reach a score between 'domestic cat,' and 'goldfish.'_

" _Oh, and in case you were wondering, the goldfish only scored so low because it was eaten by the domestic cat."_

Without looking up, Reinette held up her hand and raised her middle finger, pointed directly at the camera.

" _Well that was rude."_ A sigh escaped the intercom. _"I honestly don't know what you're hoping to accomplish here, but perhaps some information on your friend would serve to motivate you."_

Reinette's eyes lit up at the indirect mention of Clemantine. This fact did not go unnoticed by the camera. _"Yes, I have her too, and she commenced her testing experience just before you woke up. If you hurry, you might be able to catch her at the end of the test._

" _It goes without saying, but a Aperture Science High-Speed Aerial Transport Craft is waiting you there as well, with coordinates to Beacon Academy already programmed into the autopilot. Of course, if you take too long, she might leave without you... and I only have the one ship."_

Reinette gritted her teeth, but otherwise remained impassive. It was clear this woman was lying.

" _Or perhaps you're worried about the fact various illicit substances were found on your person. Don't be; I couldn't care less about what you put in your body…"_ the voice switched to a mutter, just loud enough to be heard. _"Actually, that might give me some rather interesting test results… I'll have to remember that,"_ then, with normal volume, _"But seriously, what would I have to gain by ratting you out?"_

Still unfazed, Reinette glared at the camera. "Screw you."

" _Oh, so you_ do _speak. That's a relief; for a while there, I thought I was dealing with another lunatic."_ The voice paused for a second, as if she were thinking of something. _"Although you are as stubborn as one, so it appears I'll have to resort to more… physical methods of persuasion."_

Reinette tilted her head. "Is that a threat?" she asked confrontationally

" _Wow, I am quite impressed,"_ the woman said in a tone that suggested she was anything but. _"I think I'll make a note of that in your file."_ A stock sound effect of pencil on paper played and her voice slowed down, as if she was reading from something. _"Has an... excellent... grasp… of the… painfully obvious."_

Reinette let out a conceited " _ *****_ _MM-HMM_ _ *****_ " before saying "You do realize my aura is strong enough to take anything you can throw at it."

" _Is that so?"_ the voice said in a tone which made it clear she didn't believe that at all. _"Well, I wouldn't get your hopes up too much; I've learned long ago that there is one thing aura is physically incapable of protecting against."_

"And that would be?" Reinette asked dismissively, making it clear she was calling the woman's bluff. As if in response, the sound of machinery came from behind her. She turned around, and saw several panels on the wall behind her fold away and be replaced by a single large monitor.

 **[Insert song;** _ **Portal OST**_ **;** _ **You're Not a Good Person**_ **]**

" _You still need to breathe_ _,"_ the voice said.

 _ ***FWISSSHH***_

Two more panels adjacent to the monitor slid up to reveal circular vents, from which green gas was seeping out of. The screen turned on to reveal a timer counting down.

 **...00:30:00…**

" _I'd suggest you hurry up."_

Reinette's eyes bulged and she instantly tried to move away from the gas. But in her haste to get up, she accidentally did the opposite and fell off from the cube and onto her face. She quickly pulled herself up, and a small amount of the green substance entered her lungs, causing her to let out a series of hoarse coughs.

" _They say you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but it seems every rule has an exception."_

 **...00:24:07…**

Reinette got to her feet and clutched the cube with both hands and began dragging it over to the large red button, which was only a few feet away, thankfully. Unfortunately, the lip of the button made dragging the box directly onto it difficult.

" _Of course, in this case, I've swapped out the vinegar with a deadly neurotoxin."_

 **...00:19:94…**

Reinette moved to the box's other side and began lifting the edge. She grit her teeth as the cube tilted on its edge before gravity took over and pulled it the rest of the way down to the button. This caused the dotted line to turn orange, and the door connected to it to open.

" _I find that to be far more effective, for some reason."_

 **...00:16:89...**

Reinette rushed through the door, which closed behind her automatically, and collapsed to her knees. As she sat there gasping for breath, the intercom clicked on again.

 **[End song]**

" _Congratulations on reaching third-to-last place on the leaderboard. Let's see here… ah, it seems you now score between 'domestic cat' and 'wild coyote.'_

Reinette grabbed the railing and pulled herself to her feet. "Let me guess," she muttered, "the domestic cat was killed by the wild coyote."

" _Don't be ridiculous; the domestic cat's death was_ entirely _accidental. Incidentally, have you heard the one about a cat trapped in a box with a vial of poison? Fun fact; it's not true._

" _Oh, and speaking of poisons…"_ the door leading out of the test chamber opened up again and a large green cloud wafted through, _"I_ _suggest you get in the elevator."_

Reinette did not need to be told twice.

* * *

Chell and Alyce were taking a walk along the campus. They were looking for the other two members of their team, but were having little luck finding them amongst the crowd

"Where the heck did they get to," Alyce muttered.

 _ ***boo-doo-deep***_

A series of tones emanated from Chell's direction. She reached down and pulled out the scroll responsible for the sound. Upon looking at the screen her expression turned to one of confusion. Alyce noticed this.

"What's wrong?" Chell didn't answer verbally, instead just turning the device around to let her see the screen. "You have a new message. So?" Chell tapped the number the text was from, prompting Alyce to take a closer look. Upon doing so, her look matched that on Chell's face. "What? That's… How?." She took it and held it closer to her face in order to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

Their confusion was easily justified, as instead of a number, there was… nothing. Just a blank space. Not a single character following _"From:"_

"Should we open it?"

Chell nodded and Alyce pressed _"View"_ and held it between them. The following message was displayed:

 _Meet me at the Vytal Festival_

 _Fairgrounds._

 _22:00 tonight._

 _I have information relating to_

 _Black Mesa._

The two reread the message several times over. Alyce had only one thing to say.

"Trap."

Chell nodded and took her scroll back.

 _ ***ding-ding-da-ding***_

"Hang on, that's mine," Alyce said. She pulled hers out and opened the message. Her mouth gaped and she passed the scroll to her partner, who read it.

 _It really isn't, but I guess_

 _you won't know for sure_

 _unless you come._

The two were were left speechless after that. Alyce took it back to do what she should have done first and checked the number. Once again, it was blank.

The two moved their hands closer to their respective guns, with Alyce gripping something inside her jacket and Chell shifting her backpack into her arms. They then both looked around the field, as whoever sent the message had to be close by. Deep down though, they both knew it would be a pointless endeavor. The culprit would obviously try to look as inconspicuous as possible within the large group of people, and no one would send a spy without training to do just that.

…Or maybe there could be two figures standing in full trenchcoats, complete with fedoras…

Okay then.

The huntresses-in-training turned and walked in the direction of the totally-not-suspicious pair. In hindsight, this was an exceedingly stupid move, as said pair took notice, slowly taking a few steps back before apparently panicking, turning around, and began a dead sprint.

The students followed suit, and Chell was tempted to exploit Ostium in order to catch them, but then she remembered her agreement with Ozpin; Her life _technically_ wasn't in any danger at this point, and ticking off the person in charge generally wasn't a very bright idea.

Not that that's stopped her before, but hey, first time for everything. Especially when the one in charge this time _wasn't_ actively trying to kill her.

Regardless, the chase was on.

The crowd was most definitely _not_ helping either of the trenchcoated figures crashed into several nearby students, even sending an unlucky few straight to the ground. Several variations of "Hey, watch it!" were heard.

It goes without saying, but Alyce and Chell didn't fare much better in their pursuit. They were gaining though, if only barely.

However, that changed when those pursued eventually smashed through the last of the crowd and broke line of sight by running into the space between two nearby buildings. The pursuers shortly arrived at the same location, but instead of following further, they simply stopped and peered down the passage.

Unfortunately, said passage was completely barren, aside from a few small cardboard boxes, which were much too small to hide behind. In fact, the only slightly interesting thing was the graffiti covering some of the concrete walls, and even _that_ was really stretching the definition of "interesting."

Now, Chell wasn't about to blindly go charging down another seemingly empty alley; she'd learned her lesson the first time. She took a quick glance at Alyce, who had an expression which conveyed that she was having similar thoughts.

They turned around, and saw pretty much all eyes present staring at them, along with more than a few scroll cameras. Chell immediately felt nervous from all the attention.

"Alright people, back away!"

Everyone looked to the voice's source to see a man clad head to toe in white armour with yellow highlights. Around him were three more soldiers (presumably), each in an identical suit.

The crowd immediately began to disperse. As that was happening, the man who first spoke walked up to Alyce and Chell.

"Ma'ams," he began, "I'm going to have to ask you to come with us."

The girls looked at each other. "Are… we in trouble?" Alyce slowly asked, slowly turning back.

The lead soldier was quick to shake his head. "No, but the headmaster's gonna want to see you." He stepped to the side and gestured for the girls to follow him, which they were about to do when they heard a familiar (and annoying) voice call out.

"Yo, what's going on here?"

Looking over to where the voice came from, the exact source couldn't be seen. What _could_ be seen though, was the crowd making way for a certain mountain of a teenager. Said mountain reached front, followed by his exact opposite.

Seriously, did I miss …" Jeremy began, but trailed off when he saw the four soldiers. "...something…"

The head trooper turned back to the girls. "Do you know these guys?"

Alyce responded with "Yeah, they're part of our team." Under her breath, she then muttered " _Unfortunately._ "

The soldier didn't catch that last part. "Well in that case…" he turned to the boys. "You should probably come with us too."

"What!" Jeremy exclaimed. "Why?"

Alyce sighed. "Jeremy, just… do what he says."

"But-" Jeremy cut himself off when Gary glared down on him. "...Fine," he relented and joined the girls, Gary following suit.

The group of now-eight took off in the direction of Beacon tower, with the soldiers doing their best to not look intimidated by the massive student they had with them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the yard, a woman with sat unnoticed. She had dirty blonde hair arranged in a bob cut and wore unassuming clothing. In her hand was a book, but her attention was, like everyone else's, firmly on the events currently unfolding.

As the four students were taken away, she smirked, letting out a short chuckle before snapping the book closed. She then stood up and calmly walked off.

* * *

 **(A/N):** This doesn't have anything to do with the story, but I've discovered that I just _love_ writing G-Man scenes. I have no clue why it's taken me this long to realize that.

Like I said, this story will be put on the back burner for now… though that's probably not much of a change.


	16. RWBY:CS Chibi

Reviews:

Gizmo Gear (Re: C.15): _G-man IS an interesting character._

Yes… Yes he his.

(A/N): Welcome to my first dumping ground of random joke ideas that just wouldn't fit in the main story. Please ignore any plot-holes you may encounter, because I'm likely aware of them and just don't care. After all, these scenarios are designed purely for humor, and are therefore even less canon than normal fanfiction.

* * *

Qrow approached his objective, with Harbinger held at his side. He was on a mission from Ozpin to investigate a meteorite that impacted somewhere in the Emerald Forest.

The huntsman slashed through a bush that was between him and his goal. Beyond the ex-plant lay a clearing, in the middle of which sat a smoking crater. Qrow approached the hole with his weapon at the ready, just in case.

" _Hello,"_ an accented voice called. _"Is someone there?"_

Qrow didn't know what he expected as he peered into the pit, but it certainly wasn't four white spheres with some kind of handles on them.

" _Um... if you could just pick me up… please."_ The voice seemed to be coming from one of the orbs. Qrow sheathed his sword and lifted said orb by its handles, holding it in front of his face. A mechanism resembling an eyelid opened to reveal a blue pupil.

" _Oh, finally!"_ Wheatley exclaimed. _"You have no idea what I've been through. I mean, there I was, in space, and then this…"_ The core trailed off as he took a good look at the man carrying him. His eyelids popped wide open and the blue light within shrunk down to a pinprick. Overall, this new look carried the expression of pure terror.

" _B-b-b-BIRD!"_ Wheatley yelled. Qrow dropped the core in surprise at the outburst, and Wheatley used this opportunity to get away, moving his handles in a way that somehow propelled him across the ground. _"BIRD! BIRD! BIRD! BIRD! BIRD! BIRD!"_

Qrow watched slack-jawed as the sphere rolled away "What? ...How did he…"

" _Fact: the reason that core fled was due to less-than-optimal encounter with a bird he had in the past."_ The huntsman turned around to see one of the other spheres had opened its eye as well, but this one consisted of a series of pink squares lining the outer edge, and lines pointing inwards from there to the blank center.

"Why would it think I was a bird?" Qrow said slowly, slightly afraid of the answer.

" _Because you are 'Qrow.' Crow is a type of bird. Therefore, it can be said that you are a bird._

"...Okay then…" Qrow said slowly. "I guess that makes sense… if you… yeah, I've got a minute. How do you know my name?"

" _Because I am the Fact Sphere. It is my job to know everything."_

"Everything, huh?" Qrow seriously doubted that, but a quick test wouldn't hurt. "Alright, what do you know about the Grimm?"

" _The Grimm are creatures of a nature that defies current scientific understanding, and are controlled from a top secret laboratory located in Massachusetts. Aperture Science has reason to believe that Black Mesa is involved in some way, as per the 'Every Bad Thing Ever' protocol._

"...What." Qrow said flatly.

The sphere ignored him and continued on. _"Additionally, recently uncovered evidence suggests the existence of secondary facilities in Oregon, Alabama, Utah…"_

Qrow tuned the rambling, and likely insane, sphere out as it continued to spout out names of places that probably didn't even exist. He then held his flask to his ear and swished it around to check how full it was. His worst fear was then confirmed;

He didn't have nearly enough booze to get through this.

* * *

Chell stood in the warehouse, unfazed by the weapons pointed at her. She had basically just told that suited weirdo to piss off, and now she was surrounded by robots, and one human.

"I've been ordered to take you in alive, if possible," the man said in a gruff voice. "If you surrender now, I won't have to harm yo-" _*fwip*_

A crumpled up ball of paper impacted his face mid-sentence. It obviously didn't hurt at all, but it did have an effect in that he stopped talking and just looked at Chell with a dumbfounded expression. He looked at the wad, just to make sure he wasn't imagining things, then back up.

"Wha-?" he asked, in such confusion that he couldn't even finish a single word.

Chell just nodded down at the paper.

Kelly turned to the robot on his right and hefted his gatling gun. "Hold this for me." The android complied, slinging its shotgun around its back, and grabbed the cannon by both ends. Now unburdened, the soldier grabbed the paper and unfolded it. Written there were four words, which he read aloud.

"'This sentence is false'…" He looked back up at Chell. "Is that supposed to mean something?"

 _*BOOOOOM!*_

The head of every single android suddenly exploded in a shower of sparks. Then, after a few seconds of shocked silence, all the robotic corpses collapsed to the floor.

Kelly scanned his eyes across the carnage with a wide open mouth before doing the only logical course of action;

He threw his hands in the air. "I surrender!" he shouted

* * *

(A/N): I also had a third idea involving Chell going through several dreams being terrorised by various Ellen McLain characters, but then I realised that was stupid.


	17. Sorry

I don't really know how to break this to you all gently, so I'll just dive right in.

I'm afraid the next chapter will take a very long time to be posted, if at all. I feel really awkward posting this so soon after the previous one, but I've recently lost absolutely all will to write. I don't know why, but I have. Hopefully I'll get it back, but there is still a slim chance I may not.

Once again, I am truly sorry.


End file.
